Chair of DCU Sinn Féin Sean Tyrell with the society’s petition to the Students’ Union to call a
referendum on the Union’s contribution towards the labyrinth, proposed by the Interfatih Centre
Image by Aleksandr Szojda

Petition could overturn class reps’ decision
to give €10,000 to proposed labyrinth project
By Aishling Phelan
News Editor
A DCU Sinn Féin petition could
overturn the Class Representative
Council’s decision to donate €10,000
to the labyrinth project.
At the last CRC meeting, class reps
voted in favour of the SU giving the
donation to the project by a majority
of 24 votes to 14 votes.
However, shortly after word
spread that council had approved
the donation, DCU Sinn Féinorganised a petition calling for “a referendum on whether or not the Students’ Union should donate €10,000

towards building a labyrinth”.
According to the petition, DCU
SF believes that “in the current economic climate, whilst employment
is scarce and student registration
fees are rising, it is unacceptable to
spend so much money on a project
like this. There are many better ways
in which this money can be spent,
ways which would greater benefit
DCU students”.
A referendum on any issue may
be called for if 200 union members
(students) sign a petition and submit it to either the SU President
or Chair of Class Representative
Council. The petition secured 231

signatures.
There is now major confusion as
to when the referendum on the donation will be held.
Speaking to The College View, SU
President Ed Leamy initially insisted
that the referendum does not have
to be held this semester.
“The way council have passed
it, we will give the €10,000 to them
once the project is complete. But the
promise of the €10,000 is there all
the time. Now when will the labyrinth be complete? We won’t have to
have [the referendum] this semester
but it will probably be held in the
next, we’ll say, three semesters.”

However, according to the Students’ Union Constitution, Article
9.1.5, “A referendum shall be held
not less than two academic weeks,
and not more than four academic
weeks, from being called.”
DCU SF Secretary, Dave Clougher
told The College View: “From reading the DCU SU’s constitution, my
understanding is that the referendum must be held within four
weeks.”
After he was given this information, Leamy was reluctant to confirm whether or not the referendum
would be held this semester.
“I remember reading that before

but the nature of every referendum
is different.”
He added: “We’ll be having a
council this week and we’ll have a
look at things and if that’s the case,
that’s the case. It could technically
be tied in with the SU elections.”
According to the SU Constitution,
the petition “must be submitted to
either the President or Chair of Class
Representative Council”.
DCU SF had intended to hand the
email to SU President, Ed Leamy but
he was not available when they visited his office last week.
The petition was handed to Wel» pg 5

2 The College View 21.03.12

EDITORIAL

T

The look of the Irish

his weekend marked
our biggest annual
celebration of Ireland:
St. Patrick’s Day. An
estimated 500,000 tourists and
locals alike packed into Dublin City Centre for the parade,
€90 million is thought to have
been injected into the country through tourism and Ellen
DeGeneres was even spotted
around town recording a Paddy’s
Day themed show.
As always, Ireland’s link with
alcohol gets churned up on
this occasion, particularly in
regard to the evening when the
family-friendly activities are all
wrapped up.
TD Roisin Shortall said in the
past week that there’s still a “very
close connection between al-

cohol and our national celebrations” and called one supermarket “irresponsible” for slapping
shamrocks onto bottles of whiskey and vodka in store.
Like many other celebrations
in our calendar, is it fair to say
that the true meaning has been
lost along the way? Our patriotic celebration for many has
become nothing more than a
Monday off work/college and
an excuse to start drinking at
lunchtime.
Many a Facebook feed showed
people in green, brandishing
bottles of beer from 11am. For
those of us living in the city
centre, it meant smashed bottles
outside our house, shouting and
fights, and streams of terrified
tourists racing past our windows.

Corrections?
If you have any complaints about what we’re reporting, or have
spotted any factual mistakes, please do not hesitate to contact
the relevant section editor, or email editor@thecollegeview.com.

We need only look at any representation of ourselves in TV
shows or films abroad to see the
reputation we have for ourselves:
The luck of the Irish, the gift
of the gab, with a pint of Guinness permanently in our hands.
We can be the first to complain
about the label and then be the
first into the pub.
Paddy’s Day celebrations
spread across the globe and
bring people from all over to
our shores. Be proud to see our
streets full with excited tourists.
Sure, they love the Irish pubs,
but no one should use the ol’
“it’s part of our culture” line to
make idiots of themselves. Next
time a national holiday crops up,
be smart, be sensible, and celebrate it for what it is.

Death of a
student
The College View wishes
to extend its deepest sympathies to the family and
friends of Paul Bunbury
For students that wish to
attend Paul’s funeral, DCU
are organising a bus service
from the college campus.
Funeral mass is at 12 noon
tomorrow, Thursday 22nd,
followed by burial in Bohernabreena cemetery. Removal
and mass will take place
tonight, March 21st, at St
Aengus’ Church, Balrothery
Parish, Tallaght at 7pm.

THE COLLEGE
VIEW
is hiring!
Do you want to be a part of The College View’s team?
Applications are now open for the 2012/2013 editorial positions:

Referendum on funding higher education
deferred until next academic year
Frances Mulraney
Deputy News Editor
Over 80% of students said that they
would vote in a second referendum
on the funding of higher education
in the next academic year, according
to a recent survey.
This was in contrast to just under
60% who said they voted in the first
referendum last semester, in a survey carried out by The College View.
Last December’s referendum on
a higher education funding model
was declared null and void by SU
President Ed Leamy, once it was
discovered the voting breached the
Students’ Union constitution.
As previously reported by The
College View, the last Class Rep
Council (CRC) passed the motion
to establish a Campaigns Working
Group to organise the information
campaign surrounding a second referendum on higher education funding. The decision was made at CRC
two weeks ago, to defer the referendum to the coming academic year.
In total, almost 86% of students
felt that this referendum was needed. In comments made to the survey, students felt that they wished to
have a say in an issue that will affect
them so directly: “It is important for
the Students’ Union Executive to be
actively campaigning on behalf of
the students, with the same belief
that the majority of the students
have towards higher education.”
Other answers to the survey displayed the same desire from some
students to have a say in how they
are represented: “The students
should have a say in the union’s policy on the matter. The decision has
too great an impact to be decided by
the Executive or Class Rep Council
alone.”
Of the minority that felt there is no
need for a referendum, they felt that
the vote would be “a waste of time
- the vast majority of students are
obviously going to go for the ‘don’t
pay anything’ option so why bother
asking?”
Other comments made showed
anger at the reasons behind this second referendum: “We already had
one, and I voted and I’m not voting
again because they screwed up the
first time” and “A referendum was
already held. I know it’s an Irish tradition to have as many is necessary
to get the result that you want but I
don’t agree with it”.
The decision to defer the referendum was made by Class Rep Council two weeks ago after it revealed
that DCU President Brian MacCraith is working on a DCU funding

DCU students
have their say:

proposal.
The DCU community proposal
would be put together by a committee compromising of Union Reps
and University Reps. The inclusion of this funding proposal would
mean a further change to the ballot
paper, with a possible six funding
proposals for students to vote on.
Speaking to The College View,
class rep Steve Conlon stated that
Prof Brian MacCraith had been previously unaware of the referendum
on higher education funding. This
funding proposal would be one
unique to DCU and Conlon continued to say he felt that this proposal
would be extremely important as it
would be one President MacCraith
had directly invested his time to.
If the students were to vote for this
proposal in a coming referendum,
it would give the president a constituency of 10,000 students backing
him.
He also stated that it is definitely
better to defer and wait for talks to
finish on this DCU community proposal. With one third of students
leaving the college this year and
new first years arriving, it would also
mean a fresh start and a better perspective on the campaign.
Keith Hoare, secretary of DCU
branch of Young Fine Gael agrees
that it is the right choice to wait until
next year. “It needs to be worked on
over the next six months and fully
stress-proofed... Holding the referendum should take place immediately in Semester One to attract
first year students and also to give
the union a sense of momentum to
campaign before the budget as opposed to after it, when it will be almost worthless.”
He continued to say “incoming first years have to be targeted
in this referendum and this can be
the starting point for the new SU in
promoting a more aware and active
student body.”
In the last referendum campaign
DCU Fine Gael opted to encourage
students to vote for funding model
three, a student loan scheme. Hoare
told The College View that “were
DCU SU to campaign for free fees

“I feel [the SU] did
the best they could.
It’s a difficult subject
to deal with and hard
to provide all the
relevant information
to busy students who
want the issue to be
explained in two
minutes.”

“I don’t really think
they published the
fact that they were
holding one. I know a
lot of students who do
not know about it at
all.”

“I felt that a greater
emphasis should be
“The SU could place
made by the SU to
more pressure on
boost attendance at
Government officials; demonstrations. A
the college represents few mini buses from a
over 12,000 potential university of this size
voters - signed
is a joke compared to
petition to the
the mass
minister of education, participation by some
more protests.”
colleges (namely St.
Pats).”
in the case it was the most popular
option, then we’d be looked on as
a laughing stock. There needs to be
a sense of realism in these options
and therefore, whichever is decided
upon by the student body, will have
far more weight and credibility”.
According to the survey, almost
62% of students felt that this year’s
Students’ Union could have done
more to deal with the issue of higher
education funding.
One student felt that “many people don’t listen to both sides of the
argument. Money has to come from
somewhere to help the economy
and education is a right. People
need to weigh up both sides. I think
the SU could have done more to
show both sides rather than jumping on the obvious student opinionates’ side.”
Others commended the SU on
taking the lead with this referendum. “The Students’ Union Executive led the way nationally… determining the opinion of the student
population regarding higher level
fees.
“The mistakes that occurred were
unfortunate, but I believe that the
SU Executive have dealt with the
issues as best they can under the
circumstances and the decision to
go ahead with a second referendum, to rectify the issues following
last semester’s failed referendum, is

“Being a class rep, I
find the SU dealt very
unprofessionally with
the entire issue.
Instead of making
such a fuss on how to
find out what
students want, they
need to start taking
action. Not having
done anything so far
is even more of a
disgrace, as even
though the
referendum was void,
the SU knows how
the only positive option available to
them.”
The survey on the deferral of the
referendum was completed online
by 225 DCU students, across the
various DCU schools and courses.
Many of the respondents, (58%) had
voted in the first referendum.

“The SU dealt with the
issue horrifically this
year. Moreover, the
ballot questions were
unfair in that they
offered one option for
no fees, but several
options for some kind
of fees, which had the
effect of splitting the
vote in favour of fees.
The next referendum
should include two
options: A) no fees or
B) some fees.”

“Nobody had a clue
what it was about...
Dumb it down, make it
simple.”

“The Students’ Union
are the only people
that can say if they
could have dealt
better, no such thing
as failure, only
feedback. If they did
their best but got
nowhere, they need to
change the
strategy - if they know
they didn’t try hard
enough then they
need to ask themselves why. Perhaps
they felt nothing
would change no
matter what they did…
food for thought.”

4 The College View 21.03.12

NEWS
Nominations
for SU
elections open
this week
By Patricia Rice
News Reporter
This year’s Students’ Union
elections will be held on Tuesday 3rd April and Wednesday
4th April 2012 according to Sean
Rooney, Returning Officer of
DCU SU.
Nominations opened yesterday Tuesday 20th March at 12 pm
and students will have until Saturday 24th March at 5 pm to put
themselves forward for the positions available.
Campaigning
begins
on
Wednesday 28th and will continue until polls open on Tuesday
3rd April, said Sean.
A few changes have been made
to the electoral regulations this
year with particular attention
paid to the section on social
networking.
According to the electoral procedures for 2012, “Campaigning using social networks such
as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblretc
must not commence until all
candidates are verified as DCU
students and officially declared
as candidates by the Returning
Officer.”
Sean, who is in his first year as
Returning Officer said “Greater
clarity was needed in regards
to rules on the use of social networks as this is how many of the
candidates’ campaign. It now
has its own section in electoral
procedures to make the process
fairer.”
Other rules on the use of social
networks include guidelines on
sending mass messages to voters
and the ability to buy Facebook
advertising.
It is also compulsory for candidates to attend hustings this year
or they will face penalties from
the Returning Officer. Candidates
will also have to sign the official
code of conduct and their actions
during the campaign will be held
to account by class council.

The College View 21.03.12 5

NEWS

news@thecollegeview.com

DESCRIPTION OF WORK

COST

Remove hedging at revised single entrance
Take up large grass area
Main general outer circulation walkways
Labyrinth walkways
Re-locate existing DCU notice boards
Allow a PC sum for the supply and installation of new explanatory
board
Allow a PC sum for improved lighting
Allow a PC sum for the supply and installation of 2 curved bench
seating areas

» continued from front
fare Officer, Collie Oliver, but copies
of the petition were supplied toLeamy and Chair of Class Rep Council,
Sean Cassidy.
It will be these constitutional
technicalities that will determine
whether or not a referendum on the
€10,000 donation for the labyrinth
project has to be held this semester.
Although plans were not being
put in place to hold a referendum
this semester, the constitution could
dictate that class reps must call for
the referendum to be held within
four weeks.
If this is the case, the referendum
will more than likely coincide with
the SU elections which will be held
on April 2nd and 3rd.

The issue will be discussed at this
evening’s CRC meeting. If a referendum is held this semester, class reps’
initial decision to give the donation
could be overturned. The power will
be put into students’ hands and they
will decide whether the SU will donate the €10,000.
For the results of a referendum to
be valid, at least 10% of the student
population in DCU must cast valid
votes.
The idea of a student petition
was initially sparked on a thread on
boards.ie.
When gathering signatures for
the petition, DCU SF said many students were unaware of the proposed
€50,000 labyrinth construction and

were not aware that class reps had
made a decision to allow the SU to
give €10,000 towards it.
On a post on Boards.ie Clougher
said: “From just talking to fellow
students the consensus seems to be
that this project has seemingly come
out of nowhere and caught many
by surprise, the first many heard of
this was that the Class Representative Council had voted in favour of
donating €10,000. Anecdotally, everyone I have asked about this so far
has been dead set against the notion
of donating this sum towards building a labyrinth.”
Only 40 class reps attended the
last CRC meeting. This could be
the reason so many students are

unaware of the €10,000 donation.
The SU didn’t send out an email to
all students to inform them that a
decision on the donation had been
made. This was the responsibility of
class reps.
One student posted a message
on Boards.ie under the username
DGRulz stating, “The idea of spending 50k on this is ridiculous. What’s
worse is my class rep e-mailed us
about it with her reasoning for it
being that it’d be fun to run around
after Toxic Tuesday. What happens
when someone falls and wants to
sue DCU?”
The idea of building a labyrinth
was first proposed back in 2009.
The most recent figure the Interfaith

Centre received in June 2009 put the
total cost of the labyrinth project at
€63,000 including VAT. However, Fr
Joe Jones has said the estimate still
remains at €50,000.
“I hope to have a new quote in the
next two weeks. We are waiting on
the architect to give us an update.
The last quote we got was June 2009
and so we expect it to be less now
with the economic downturn,” he
said.
If the SU can give the donation,
the money will not be handed over
to the construction company until
the project is completed. If construction has not begun within two
calendar years, the sum of €10,000
would be returned to the SU.

Members of DCU Sinn Féin present their petition to DCUSU Vice President for Welfare Collie Oliver | Image by
Aleksandr Szojda
Left: An example of a labyrinth

6 The College View 21.03.12

NEWS

DCU’s political societies speak
out on EU Fiscal Compact Treaty
By Aisling Kett
Deputy News Editor
The DCU youth branches of Fine
Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin have
spoken of their contrasting views
and plans regarding the upcoming
EU Fiscal Compact referendum.
DCU Young Fine Gael will campaign for a yes vote on campus.
Chairperson of the society, Ryan
Hunt, said students should vote yes
in the referendum as it concerns an
important issue.
He said the effects of a no vote
are unclear, but would leave Ireland
without the funding it currently
receives to help run the country.
He believes the treaty will pass at
referendum.
The society will campaign by canvassing on campus but Hunt said
students are entitled to make up
their own minds. They are hoping
to get DCU business school lecturer,
Tony Foley, to write an article for
The College View, giving students
an independent view on the treaty
to help them decide how to vote.
DCU Sinn Féin will campaign for

a no vote in the referendum. The
society staged a protest against the
treaty outside the Helix last Tuesday
where Minister for European Affairs,
Lucinda Creighton, spoke at an EU
jobs fair. Eight members of the society handed out leaflets and carried
banners to encourage a no vote.
The society believes the treaty will
inflict more years of austerity on the
country. Chairperson of the society,
Sean Tyrrell, said this would deter
foreign investment and create job
losses, perhaps forcing students to
emigrate. Secretary David Clougher
said the treaty is “not a good deal for
Ireland, not a good deal for the EU
but a good deal for Germany and
France”.
Labour DCU are undecided if
they will campaign for a yes vote.
The Labour party is campaigning for
a yes vote but Labour Youth has not
yet made a statement. Chairperson
of the society, David Healion, said
the society would have a meeting
to make this decision. If the treaty
is not supported he does not expect
members to follow the party line.
Healion said he supports the
treaty and students should vote yes,

DCU Sinn Féin protested outside the Helix last Tuesday | Image by Aleksandr Szojda
as Ireland will need the EU if more hopes it will.
on February 28th. A date has yet to
bailouts are required. He is unsure
Taoiseach Enda Kenny an- be set by the government for the
whether the treaty will pass but nounced the referendum in the Dáil referendum.

EU opportunities for graduates with two languages
By Aisling Kett
Deputy News Editor

Minister for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton speaking in the Helix | Image by Aleksandr Szojda

Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton told students that
there are plenty of jobs in the EU
when she spoke at an EU jobs fair in
the Helix last Tuesday.
The minister was one of a number of speakers at the fair which informed students of the job opportunities in the EU after they graduate.
She said there are annual recruitment competitions for which graduates can apply. The recruitment process for these competitions is nine
months long.
Minister Creighton emphasised
that jobs were available for all of
Ireland’s graduates, not just recent
graduates. She said young students
should take advantage of the fact
that many EU institutions are interested in hiring more young people.
Applicants need to be fluent in
two languages to apply for the jobs
competitions. A second language is
required for jobs in EU institutions,
such as the European parliament.
Other speakers at the fair were
Anne McEvoy from the European
Parliament Information Office in

Dublin and Joan Flanagan from the
European Commission Representation in Ireland. A representative
from the European Personal Selection Office (ESPO) also spoke at the
fair.
ESPO is a site that gives information on upcoming EU job opportunities and competitions. EUjobs.ie
is a site created by the Department
of the Taoiseach that has links to information on EU jobs opportunities.
Currently there are jobs available
in external relations, audit, legal services and public administrators. The
minister said, “So many opportunities [are available], you just have to
find them.”
Questions after the speeches focused on the compulsory second
language for registration.
DCU Sinn Féin staged a protest
outside the Helix during the jobs
fair. The society protested against
the EU Fiscal Compact Treaty. They
urged students to vote against the
treaty in the upcoming referendum
which they believe will bring more
years of austerity to Ireland.
Minister Creighton is a DCU
alumni after studying for a Masters
in International Relations in the
university.

The College View 21.03.12 7

NEWS

news@thecollegeview.com

Almost one third of students believe
cannabis should be legalised
More than half of students admit to using illegal drugs
Aishling Phelan
News Editor
Almost one third of students believe
cannabis should be legalised in Ireland for recreational purposes.
A survey conducted online by The
College View found that the procannabis lobby in DCU stands at
32%, while 47% of students believe it
should not be legalised.
Students hold very strong and diverse opinions when it comes to the
issue of legalising the Class B drug.
Many students said one of the
major benefits of legalising the drug
would be that they would no longer
have to be in direct contact with
drug dealers.
One respondent said: “If it was
legal I wouldn’t be going near any
other drugs and the dodgy people
that are associated with the illegal
drug industry.”
Another student said: “Cannabis does less damage to your body
than alcohol, it’s been scientifically proven. Taxing it and making
it legal would bring money in and
I wouldn’t have to deal with drug
dealers.”
Other students believed legalising
it would stop young people “putting
money into the wrong hands” and
preventing criminal gangs using it
as a source of income.
“While I think cannabis has both
good and bad properties, I feel
that overall there are more harmful drugs and I’d much rather it be
made available legally for people to
buy than off some drug dealer in the
street.”
Another said: “It is just as easily
available to people whether it is legal or illegal, and it is more dangerous when it is pushed underground.”
A large majority of students, who
are for the legalisation of cannabis, believe alcohol is a much more
harmful substance to both the individual and society as a whole.
“It is not cannabis smokers who
fill up the accident and emergency
departments of our hospitals every
weekend. In my view cannabis is
less harmful to the body and to society then alcohol.”
Another respondent said: “If alcohol is legal for recreational purposes
I don’t see why cannabis shouldn’t
be. There is more of a danger in
drinking then smoking weed, in
terms of physical health as well as to
society.”
Other arguments for the legali-

56%

of students have
consumed some
form of illegal drug.
sation of cannabis centred on the
“economic benefits” it would bring
through taxation. Some students believed if it were legalised, it would no
longer act as a gateway or “stepping
stone drug” because they would be
purchasing the drug in a safe and
monitored environment.
However, students who are
against the legalisation of cannabis highlighted the destructive and
counterproductive forces behind
the mind-altering drug.

“It is MUCH too
easy to obtain
drugs these days
and IF I wanted to,
it could be done
with one phone
call.”
“Well I just know from a young
person’s point of view. I just feel it is
too accepted and think the dangers
should be talked about more.”
“Loads of my friends smoke weed,
I hate it and always tell them not
to, but there is so little information
about it available, they all think it
won’t harm them at all. There should
be more info on harmful effects of
all drugs, including cannabis.”
Some of the main side effects associated with long-term cannabis
use include depression, mental
health problems and respiratory
and memory problems.
Just over half of students who
responded to the survey said they
have consumed some form of illegal
drug.
Of those who had, cannabis was
by far the most commonly used
drug (97%). Almost one third of
respondents admitted to using cocaine at some point in their life and
38% had used ecstasy.

Of those who have consumed some form of illegal drug:
(Multiple choice given)

Between 15-20% of the students
Have you ever been offered
Have you ever been offered
admitted to experimenting with
drugs at an event or party
drugs at an event or party
drugs such as magic mushrooms,
on campus?
off campus?
LSD and speed.
It seems that drugs are not a major part of the social scene in DCU. It
YES
is off campus that students are more
19%
likely to find themselves in a situaNO
YES
tion where they could gain easy ac49%
51%
NO
cess to drugs.
81%
Just under 80% of students said
they have never been offered drugs
at an event or party on campus.
Only 21% had been offered drugs on
campus compared to 51% who say If you did want to obtain drugs, how easy do
they’ve been offered drugs at a colyou think it would be to gain access to them?
lege party off campus.
Almost 90% of respondents said
Very easy — 32%
it is easy to gain access to drugs.
“You will never be able to fully cut Easy — 22%
down on drug use even in a heavily
secured and strictly coded environ- Fairly easy — 34%
ment like DCU. It is much too easy Not easy — 3%
to obtain drugs these days and if I
wanted to, it could be done with one Difficult — 1%
phone call. There is a whole lot be- Don’t know — 8%
ing done to prevent drug use in Ireland but it will not work.”
Do you think DCU Students'
Another student said: “To be hon- Should cannabis be legalised
for
recreational
purposes?
Union
does enough to highlight
est if I wanted drugs I would not
the dangers of drug consumption?
know where to go or who to ask… I
think it depends on the people you
DON’T
mix with.”
YES
KNOW
Over 40% of students believe the
YES
DON’T 19%
21%
Students’ Union is not doing enough
KNOW
32%
to highlight the dangers of drug con39%
NO
sumption. Just 19% of students beNO
lieve the SU have done enough and
32%
47%
39% were unsure.
“At least 40% of my class are regular cannabis users and are functioning perfectly well and doing fine in
their degree. The SU would be hypocrites if they spoke out against cannabis because they actively promote
‘‘Some students think cannabis is not dangerous and is in fact
the consumption of another drug,
helpful and I would like it if the student union could highlight
alcohol, on campus and for disthe dangers it can cause.’’
counted prices. They should have a
campaign that promotes using alco‘‘Ireland could have had the chance to make money off this
hol and cannabis responsibly and to
drug through taxes, that has medicinal purposes and does less
avoid harder drugs such as cocaine
harm to a person and society than alcohol. Now other countries
and heroin.”
such as NL, Switzerland and Spain are starting to legalise
The survey was conducted online
between 530 students from the varicannabis, and as usual, Ireland is going to catch on last.’’
ous faculties and schools in DCU.

Students have their say:

8 The College View 21.03.12

NEWS

news@thecollegeview.com

Increase in CAO applications to
courses with higher job prospects
By Aoife Mullen

Deputy News Editor
The number of students with first
preference applications to DCU on
their CAO this year has increased by
7% since 2010.
Exactly 4,256 students have chosen DCU courses as their first preference this year.
Applicants to Computing, Engineering, Business and some science
degrees in DCU have all increased.
DCU Business School courses
continue to increase in demand,
despite a national decline in applicants to business courses.
International Business Studies
and Business Studies with German
are among the most popular business courses, showing Leaving Certificate students are aware of the
increasing need to look for employment overseas.
Another course reflecting this
awareness is Languages and International Communications, which
saw an increase of 29% in first pref-

ence on students’ CAO applications.
There has been a 38% increase
in the number of first preference
applications for courses in Computer Applications and Enterprise
Computing.
Demand for Biomedical Engineering in DCU has increased by
First preference CAO applications for 2012 in DCU:
56%, while total applications for
Physics programmes are up 22%.
Applied Physics is up 34%, while
International Business Studies - (up 47.2%)
Physics with Astronomy is up 31%.
Business Studies with German - (up 15.8%)
Commenting on this year’s CAO
statistics, President of DCU, Prof BriLanguages and International Communications – (up 29%)
an MacCraith said: “I am delighted
Marketing, Innovation and Technology – (up 71%)
that DCU degree programmes continue to increase in popularity with
Accounting and Finance – (up 14%)
students all across Ireland. This is a
Computer Applications and Enterprise Computing – (up 38%)
tribute to our DCU staff, who strive
continually to enhance the quality
Biomedical Engineering – (up 56%)
and relevance of our programmes.
Applied Physics – (up 34.2%)
“I am particularly pleased with
the significant increases in preferences for degree programmes in
erence applications this year.
such as Marketing, Innovation and plications up 14%.
Computing, Engineering, Science
First preference applications to Technology, are up 71%. Traditional
Job creation in sectors such as and Business, which are so criticourses that have been developed courses remain popular however, computing, science, technology and cal for Ireland’s future economic
to suit the transformed jobs market, with Accountancy and Finance ap- engineering has had a clear influ- prosperity.”

Potential students are keeping an eye on
the emerging trends in the jobs market

DCU lecturer, Brian Harney, delivered a 24-hour lecture in aid of
‘Baby Grace’ last Wednesday.
Grace is the daughter of a PDP
student in the Business School, and
is being treated for Hyperinsulinism
at great Ormond Street Hospital,
London.
Harvey said it was always his intention to do something like this for
Baby Grace and said: “It is great that
the DCU community is able to come
together to assist her [Grace’s] family at this difficult time.”
The lecture started at 10am
Wednesday and finished with a
grand finale in QG13 where Harvey
tried to make sense of ‘Critical Reflections on Business Education’ after 24 hours of being awake.

It was delivered by Harvey alone,
and was based on content he
teaches throughout the year. The
theme was ‘Strategy, People and
Advantage’.
He took a five minute break every hour and said staying coherent
may be more difficult than staying
awake, “but I’m sure some of my
current students would say I’m never that coherent at the best of times”.
65 people signed up for various
blocks, adding up to a total of 272
volunteered hours. So far, Harvey
has raised just over €3,000 and he
expects this to rise to €5,000.
Hyperinsulinism
occurs
in
around 1/25,000 to 1/50,000 births
and about 60% of babies with the
condition develop Hypoglycaemia.
During digestion, food is broken
down into glucose for the body to
use as fuel. The pancreas releases

insulin to help the body absorb the
glucose and when glucose levels
fall, so does insulin.
With Hyperinsulinism, the pancreas produces insulin non-stop
because it does not recognise how
much glucose is in the blood or a
drop in blood sugar levels.
Hypoglycaemia is when the brain
is deprived of necessary fuels such
as glucose and has no energy to
work.
Brain damage can occur in up to
50% of children with Hyperinsulinism if their condition is not recognised or if treatment fails.
Harvey said: “The lecture was a
great success. It was a gruelling but
most humbling experience and also
a reminder of the strength of the
DCU community.”
Visit www.sponsorship.ie to help
Baby Grace.

Students spend St.Patrick’s
Day in Africa as part of 10day charity work

Student volunteers travelled to Ghana in
West Africa as part of a Microfinance Brigade with Global Brigades Ireland

The College View 21.03.12 9

NEWS

news@thecollegeview.com

ISS refuse to discuss exam
results system after problems
By Aoife Mullen
Deputy News Editor
DCU Young Fine Gael have criticised
ISS for refusing to meet them to
discuss the problems with the
release of this year’s exam results to
students.
On February 23rd, DCU YFG
Secretary, Keith Hoare emailed ISS
on behalf of the branch, requesting
a meeting “to discuss why there
was a temporary delay in students
being able to access their results
and as to whether or not ISS and the
university will review the system”.
ISS replied to the request
by encouraging the branch to
“channel” their concerns through
the Students’ Union in order to
avoid “duplication of effort” and did
not agree to meet the branch.

“We are calling on the ISS to immediately respond to this issue to
avoid a repeat of events for Semester Two results.” – Keith Hoare, DCU
DCU YFG then met with DCU
Students’ Union President, ED
Leamy to discuss the matter,
which Hoare described as “very
encouraging”.
Leamy fully supported the
concerns brought forward by the
branch and arranged for a “short
discussion” with DCU President
Brian MacCraith.
MacCraith told DCU YFG he was

exploring alternative options for
the delivery of exam results to avoid
such disruption to students in the
future.
Following its meeting with the SU
President and the DCU President,
DCU YFG emailed ISS again on
March 6th to request a meeting, but
ISS have yet to respond.
Hoare told The College View: “It
is completely understandable that

all departments have experienced a
reduction in resources but it is much
more efficient for the ISS to meet
with a student representative body
for ten minutes, as opposed to the
ISS’ current practice of requesting
all questions be submitted via
e-mail. The ISS are responsible
for a large amount of activity
within the university, yet they are
unaccountable to students.
“The system for delivery of
examination results deployed by
the ISS has repeatedly failed with
the website crashing on numerous
occasions as students log on at the
same time for their results. This is,
and as was the case in February, an
extremely stressful time for students
and coupled with that, it does very
little to enhance the reputation of
the university, with students taking

to Facebook and Twitter to vent
their frustration.
“We are calling on the ISS to
immediately respond to this issue to
avoid a repeat of events for Semester
Two results. We are also calling
on the ISS to seriously consider a
system used in other universities
whereby results would be phased
our during the day via faculty and
to scrap the current system whereby
all students are getting results at the
same time. This will not just improve
student welfare but the university’s
reputation too, both of which are
vitally important.”
DCU YFG have said they will be
seeking the support of students in
the coming days and plan to petition
the Union Council, urging them
to take up the issue and “ensure it
doesn’t disappear for another year”.

Gilroy says pay-for-play won’t work in Ireland
By Aoife Mullen
Deputy News Editor
Dublin Football Manager, Pat Gilroy
told DCU students pay-for-play will
not be sustainable in Ireland until
the GAA expands to other countries.
The manager and businessman
spoke about the controversial issue
during a motivational talk organised
by Enterprise Society (Esoc) for Enterprise Week.
Gilroy said the pay-for-play issue is a difficult one that’s not being

work. He looked back to his college
days and spoke on how he balanced
playing for Dublin and sitting his final exams.
He encouraged students, whether
they were doing the Leaving Certificate or college exams, to continue
with their sports and not give up at
exam time.
He told students that people
can be extreme and focus only on
one thing, but there needs to be a
balance.
Gilroy said the three key areas in
his own life are his family, work and

Gilroy on his position as Dublin
Manager - “I will leave when I’m not
enjoying it anymore or not getting
anything out of it…”
dealt with honestly and there are
people involved in the GAA who are
currently being paid. He said there
is support for the payment of GAA
players, but it is not enough.
He doesn’t believe pay-for-play
could come into effect for at least
the next 20 years, as the GAA simply
could not fund it. He told students
that the GAA would need to broaden
its horizons beyond Ireland in order
to fund the payment of GAA players.
During the talk, Gilroy told students how he balances sport and

sport, and a balance between all
three makes him healthy and happy.
He warned students that sometimes you have to make hard decisions to maintain a healthy balance,
but you need to learn discipline and
know when to say no.
Gilroy spoke about the lessons he
has learned in business and sport.
He believes “everything is transferable” between business and sport,
such as leadership and teamwork
skills.
Speaking about leadership, Gilroy

Pat Gilroy spoke to DCU students as part of Enterprise Week
told students there are many ways
to lead people. His own leadership
method is to understand that when
leading a group, it’s what is in their
heads, not yours, that’s important
and gets people to perform. He said
you must really try to work with a
group and have open discussion,
rather than dictate to them.
On teamwork, Gilroy said there
is more to a team than just putting
a group together and expecting results. He believes you need to have a
system in place that motivates them
to achieve.

Gilroy’s system is to try and understand what results you’re trying
to achieve. He said to achieve the
results, you break it down as a team
into “what you have to do and how
to do it, if you have the ability to do it
and if you want to do it”.
Gilroy told students this was the
model he had in place as Dublin
Manager which led Dublin to becoming All-Ireland Champions last
September.
He also told students about the
importance of having teamwork
skills coming out of college. He

added people with a sporting background usually have good business
skills, such as teamwork and leadership skills.
Asked why he didn’t decide to
leave his managerial position after
the All-Ireland win and go out on a
high, he said “I will leave when I’m
not enjoying it anymore or not getting anything out of it anymore” and
that he still feels there’s room to grow
and improve their performance.
The challenge for Dublin now, he
said, is to change strategy and try
and do it again this year.

10 The College View 21.03.12

NEWS

Open verdict in Darren
Sutherland inquest
with the step up from amateur
boxing to professional. He was
suffering depression and doubted
his ability in the ring after suffering
an eye injury that wouldn’t heal.
According
to
Palmer
“he
sustained this cut. Many boxers get
cuts and they heal up. This clearly
distressed him”.
He went on to say that: “The
words I’ve heard over the last four
days are words like happy, always
smiling, a gentleman, nice guy,
charming, personable, determined,
diligent, panicky, a worrier, a closed
individual.”

By Adam Higgins
News Reporter

Former DCU student and Olympic
medal winner, Darren Sutherland
may have been too sensitive and
intelligent to be a boxer, according
to a coroner’s open verdict into the
star’s death.
DrRoy Palmer said that Darren
was “a charming personable
gentlemen” who “lit up the room”
but might have been “too sensitive

and intelligent to be a boxer”.
The 27-year-old was found
dead in his London apartment, in
September 2009 by his manager
FrankMoloney, who had to be
treated for a heart attack after
discovering the body.
During the inquest Sutherland’s
management were criticised after
notes were found near the body
that detailed his fear over what his
manager, Moloney, would do to him
if he broke his contract.
A friend of Sutherland, Ismay
Bourke also told the hearing that

Sutherland was terrified of his
manager.
When
giving
evidence
at
the hearing,Moloney said that
Sutherland had no reason to fear
him and that he hadn’t placed any
extra pressure on the boxer.
Darren
Sutherland
turned
professional in boxing after winning
an Olympic bronze medal in the
2008 games.
In a statement read out by their
solicitor, the Sutherland family
has called on the British Board of
Boxing Control to make changes to

ease the transition from amateur to
professional boxing.
They said: “If anything is to be
learned from the tragedy of Darren’s
death, it should be that the support
mechanisms that exist for amateur
boxers should also be there for them
when they begin their lonely path on
the journey to professional life.”
Two separate post mortem
examinations have now confirmed
that Darren Sutherland died of
asphyxiation.
The four-day inquest into his
death heard that he had struggled

Interest in animal welfare drops
without international students
By Catríona Hughes
News Reporter
DCU’s animal welfare society, Whisker has raised over €1,000 so far this
year for various sanctuaries helping
homeless animals in Ireland.
The figure emerged following a
neutering awareness campaign and
sponsored fast in aid of www.whiskersnewpark.org, which was held in
the Street last Tuesday.
Whisker has been set up to unite

animal lovers in DCU and most importantly, to help animals through
fundraising, lobbying, volunteering
and awareness campaigns.
However, the society has seen a
huge decline in participation from
DCU students this year, following
the departure of many Erasmus students. It appears that international
students have been more concerned
about the importance of animal
welfare than Irish students.
“The events we have organised
are better, but participation is now

poorer,” claimed Whisker Chairperson, Avril Noble.
There are currently over 16,000
homeless dogs in Ireland. The majority of these dogs end up in the
pound and most are killed after five
days because the government will
not hold them for any longer.
However, there are now over
700,000 homeless cats in Ireland.
Many homeless cats are born into
this and are often referred to as ‘feral’ cats.
“The government currently has

no involvement in cats, they are legally classed as ‘vermin.’ This means
that you can tear out a kitten’s eyes
with your hands and it’s not illegal,”
Noble told The College View.
Whisker believes in a simple solution to solve animal homelessness;
to trap, neuter, release or rehome
where possible.
With participation numbers
plummeting, Whisker is urging students to get involved and help improve animal welfare.
The society will be working alongside DCU’s Art Society next month
to campaign against cosmetic testing on animals.
Whisker will also be hosting a
cake sale in April for a soon to be
selected sanctuary. The society will
then be distributing leaflets to students regarding neutering in order
to raise awareness.

TeaSoc
set up
By Aisling Kett
Deputy News Editor
A society dedicated to drinking tea has been set up in DCU.
DCU Society Life Committee
approved the establishment of
DCU Tea Society at a meeting last
Wednesday.
DCU Tea Society aims to promote tea, to introduce people to
different blends of tea and encourage people to drink loose leaf
tea. It also aims to inform members about tea culture.
The work to establish the society began roughly a week before
when Multimedia student Cian
Mac Mahon mentioned on twitter the idea of setting up a tea
society. A positive response from
followers prompted Mac Mahon,
along with some friends, to set up
the society.
A meeting was held last Tuesday to talk to interested students
and gather signatures as part of
the proposal to the SLC. Fourty
signatures were presented to the
DCU SLC as part of the society’s
proposal.
Mac Mahon said the society
hopes to hold events with other
DCU societies. One event proposed is to have members make
their own blend of tea using different loose leaf varieties.
Other universities, such as
UCC, have similar societies. An
intervarsity event may be organised between these universities.
The society signed up members and elected a committee at
their first AGM yesterday.

The College View 21.03.12 11

NEWS

news@thecollegeview.com

UL students boycott
Irish Daily Sun
By Patrick Carberry
News Reporter
The ‘Thomond Student Times’,
University of Limerick’s student
newspaper last week started an
online petition against the ‘Irish
Daily Sun’. The petition calls for the
campus bookshop, O’Mahoney’s
Bookshop, to stop stocking and
selling the newspaper.
The attempt to boycott the
newspaper in UL follows the
newspaper’s reporting of charity
events run by UL RAG during RAG
Week being linked to anti-social
behaviour. Outrage ensued within
the UL student community since
the paper’s publishing of an image

of Seán O’Gorman, a UL student,
taking part in UL RAG’s ‘Nearly
Naked Mile’, a charity event which
raised almost €1,000, but was
portrayed by the ‘Irish Daily Sun’
as “RAG week students go starkers”.
Somewhere between the beginning
of UL RAG’s campaign ‘You don’t
look stupid fighting cancer’, and
the newspaper’s publication, the
message appears to have been lost.
Though Seán O’Gorman appeared
in the ‘Irish Daily Sun’, the element
of charity behind his appearance
was not mentioned. RAG Week
did get a quick reference, however
the article lacked any mention of
UL RAG, the collection of money
for charity, or an explanation as
to why Seán was “nearly-naked”,

leaving this decision down to the
discretion of the reader. The lack of
recognition and misrepresentation
of UL students’ efforts to raise
money for worthy causes has greatly
angered students, and resulted in
the petition to boycott the ‘Irish
Daily Sun’.
According to UL Raising and
Giving Chairman, Kevin Bolger,
“We are very disappointed with
this piece of journalism. We are
making great progress in UL trying
to harness positive student energies
and talents for the greater good of
society.
“However, journalism like this
is very disheartening for students
because even when they are trying
to contribute to society, they are

portrayed in a negative light.” UL
RAG have since decided to remain
neutral regarding the online petition
to boycott the paper.
Though there were a small
number of arrests during the UL
Charity Week, as well as reports
of drinking in public and firelighting in the College Court area of
Castletroy, none of this was linked
to the charitable efforts of Seán
O’Gorman and his companions in
UL RAG.
UL RAG was founded in February
this year, following the success of
DCU RAG since it was founded last
September. Since its foundation, UL
RAG has raised over €2,000, with the
aim of reaching €6,000 by the end of
the year.

TCD student hacker released
after questioning
By Frances Mulraney
Deputy News Editor
A Trinity student, which the FBI
claims is a top hacker, has been
released by the Gardaí without
charge.
Donnacha O’Cearbhaill was
charged in US court documents
of one count of computer hacking
conspiracy, hacking Garda email
and distributing a recording of a
conference call between Gardaí and
US authorities.
He was questioned about
membership
of
Anonymous,
an internet subculture in which
‘hacktivists’
promote
anticensorship and freedom of speech
on the internet. He was also accused
of membership of the Anonymous
spin-out collective LulzSec.
The FBI claims that the 19-yearold county councillor’s son from
Offaly is one of the five most
wanted hackers in the world. If he is
convicted he faces up to 15 years in
prison in the US.
O’Cearbhaill is one of two Irish
students the FBI charged with
computer hacking. Darren Martyn
from Galway was also named in the
FBI court papers that were filed in
Manhattan and published by the US
Attorney’s Office two weeks ago.
Although the court papers list
Martyn as 25, it is believed from his
Twitter account that he is in fact

just 19. He faces a 20 year sentence
if convicted on charges including
hacking a conference call, the FOX
broadcasting network and also the
Fine Gael website. Martyn has not
been arrested.
O’Cearbhaill was arrested and
questioned for 24 hours at Terenure
Garda station in Dublin two weeks
ago. His case is currently being
prepared for the Director of Public
Prosecutions.
Currently a first year in Medicinal
Chemistry in Trinity, O’Cearbhaill
was arrested last September in
relation to the hacking of the Fine
Gael website, according to court
reports. A report in the ‘Irish
Examiner’ said that he has “turned
his back on hacking last year, prior
to his arrest on the infiltration of the
Fine Gael website”.
According
to
the
‘Irish
Independent’, it is understood that
there are a number of FBI agents
currently in Ireland to help the
Gardaí with their investigation. They
also report that this investigation
“is focused on the activities of the
Anonymous hacking network and
several offshoots, including a group
known as Lulzsec”.
Among the charges filed against
the two Irish men, it is reported
that the group also targeted the US
X-Factor, stealing confidential data
of over 70,000 potential contestants
as well as compromising an FBI
computer.

Joint
mature
student
conference
DIT is to host a Mature Students’
Conference next Saturday in
association with the Union of
Students in Ireland, Mature Students Ireland and the Board of
Irish College Societies.
The event, held in DIT Bolton
St, aims to provide mature students with the skills and information they need to be successful in third level education.
The topics at the conference
will include an introduction from
Elaine Geraghty, CEO of Inspire
Ireland, life as a mature student
and beyond, parenthood as a
mature student, running a successful mature students’ society,
minding your mental health and
a question and answers session
with the USI.
All of the country’s mature
students are welcome to attend.
The conference is to act as an
opportunity for mature students
from all parts of the county to
meet with each other, to network
and to learn from each other’s
experiences.
The event is a joint venture including Mature Students Ireland,
a national network of Higher
Education institutes in Ireland
that attempts to improve the services that are available to mature
students.
The organisation evolved due
to the increase in students over
the age of 23 applying to the
CAO in recent years. They feel
that mature students should be
supported through conferences
like this to ensure that they participate successfully in higher
education, encourage others to
attend third level education, that
they inform the national policy
and institution policy regarding
mature students and that they
encourage research on mature
students.
One of the main issues the
conference will address is integration, a topic that is covered
by DIT Mature Students’ Society
(The ‘Old Skool’ Society). The society addresses the worries that
mature students may have about
fitting in, meeting other mature
students and having a social
life as a mature student while in
college.
The conference will run from
10am to 5.50pm this Saturday
March 24th. Tickets cost €10 and
can be purchased on the event
page on eventbrite.ie or on the
day.

12 The College View 21.03.12

NEWS

UK CAO applicants increase Staff at
Cork
IT on
strike

By Suzanne Cooper
News Reporter

UK applicants to third level
education in the Republic of Ireland
rose by 27% this year, preliminary
figures have shown.
This brings to 2,500 the total
number of UK applicants in the
Republic, up from 2,000 last year.
This rise in applications here can
be attributed to the increase in fees
that England, Wales, and Northern
Ireland have experienced.
It was reported last year that
more than three quarters of English
universities were set to charge the
maximum fees for the college year
2011/2012.

From the beginning of this
college year, students in the UK and
Wales have been expected to pay
£9,000 (€10,700) in fees. In Northern
Ireland, student fees went up to
roughly £3,000 (just under €4,000).
Scotland is the only member of
the UK where the students do not
pay fees.
In April 2011, Prof Paul O’ Prey,
Vice Chancellor at the University of
Roehampton, London, stated that,
“we will be losing over 95% of our
government funding… we’re going
to become almost totally reliant on
student fees”.
In the Republic, students
technically don’t pay fees. We pay
a “contribution” of €2250, which is
a much smaller sum of money than

these universities in the UK.
This is an attractive alternative
for UK students, as anyone who is
an EU citizen, or lived in the EU for
three out of the last five years, does
not have to pay full tuition fees here
in the Republic of Ireland.
According to statistics published
by the Universities and Colleges
Admissions
Service
(Ucas),
52,321 applicants applied to UK
Universities from within the UK
for the college year 2011/2012,
compared to 59,413 the year before.
Students applying to universities
in England have fallen overall by
18.7%.
Although there has also been a
very slight increase in applications
from England, Scotland and Wales

to universities in Northern Ireland,
there are still a significantly small
number of these applications.
BBC NI education correspondent
Maggie Taggart reported that,
“despite fees being lower for Great
Britain students in the University of
Ulster and large bursaries offered
at Queen’s, there has not been a
big increase in applications from
England, Wales or Scotland”.
The number of UK students
willing to pay out £9000 in fees is
clearly decreasing, as many students
are now looking elsewhere like
the Republic of Ireland. Many UK
students are evidently not willing
to take out massive student loans,
which they must begin to repay
when earning more than £21,000.

UCC make breakthrough
in breast cancer research
By Catríona Hughes
News Reporter
UCC researchers recently developed an exciting new treatment for
breast cancer using gene therapy.
The new strategy, aimed at halting
tumour growth, is being funded by
the Irish Cancer Society.
The research team at UCC found
that delivering positive human
genes to breast cancer tumour cells
by means of a virus, causes the genes
to then generate signals within the
tumour to cut off its blood supply,
ultimately stopping the growth of
the tumour.
This new strategy uses genes
from humans rather than from viruses, which results in longer lasting therapy. Although this particular
gene therapy is still in its infancy, it
targets breast cancer tumour cells
without disturbing or causing harm
to healthy cells. This result is the ultimate aim for cancer treatment of
all kinds.
The Irish Cancer Society currently
funds seven studies on breast cancer. The objective for the society is
to improve the outcomes of people
affected by cancer, by discovering
new ways to improve diagnosis and
treatments. The principle investigator of this research initiative, Dr
Mark Tangney and his team at UCC
has investigated the usage of gene
therapy, in respect of the treatment
of breast cancer, since 2008.
“We are delighted to have advanced a new type of potential treat-

ment for breast cancer that uses this nificant advances in breast cancer
liver alternative treatments to those
pioneering gene therapy, which has research, both in terms of predictive affected by cancer”.
significantly less toxicity and more biomarkers of what may happen to
Tangney claims that Irish and inefficacy than existing treatment,” you during your breast cancer jour- ternational studies carried out on
said Tangney.
ney and in novel treatments.
gene therapy are showing significant
According to Tangney, his
“We are committed to continuing progress. He believes that this could
research team is looking into difour investment in cancer research, lead to gene therapy treatment beferent ways that gene therapy can
and we hope that research into ar- ing made available worldwide in the
be used to treat cancer of all forms. eas such as gene therapy may de- next decade.
“We have
successfully
developed a
novel method of testing
gene therapy
agents on
Do you want to be a part of The College View’s team?
tumours removed from
Applications are now open for the 2012/2013 editorial positions:
patients,
• Editor-in-Chief
which is a
huge step
• News – Editor/Deputy Editor
forward for
• Features – Editor/Deputy Editor
us,” Tangney
added.
• Arts – Editor/Deputy Editor
The Irish
• Travel – Editor
Cancer
Society is
• Irish – Editor/Deputy Editor
currently
• Sports – Editor/Deputy Editor
the largest
• Production & Layout – Editor/Deputy Editor
voluntary
funder
• Online - Editor
of cancer
• Images - Editor
research in
Ireland. The
Email editor@thecollegeview.com outlining your previous
Head of Research at the
experience and why you think you are suitable for your
Irish Cancer
chosen role. Put ‘application’ in the subject line.
Society, Prof
John Fitzpatrick stated:
Closing date for applications is April 6th at 6pm.
“We have
made sig-

THE COLLEGE VIEW
is hiring!

By Frances Mulraney
Deputy News Editor
Cork Institute of Technology’s
SIPTU members will today engage in a one-day strike to protest the dismissal of six members
of staff last week.
The six women were made redundant from Student Services
Ltd, a private, not-for-profit company set up by the management
of CIT, on March 9th. The dismissal was allegedly made without any consultation or redundancy payment.
SIPTU members are calling for
the employees to be reinstated
and for talks to then take place. A
representative from SIPTU, Brendan Mulcahy, stated that: “SIPTU
had asked the company to defer
the redundancies to allow for a
meaningful meeting with management, where ways could be
discussed to save the jobs. This
request was turned down.”
The ‘Irish Examiner’ reports
that the union requested a meeting with senior management in
the institute of technology, including Brendan Murphy, the institute’s president.
It was upon this refusal that
members voted to take industrial
action and a strike notice was
served on March 13th. Mulcahy
added that “although some of
the workers have in excess of
two years service no statutory
redundancy has been paid” and
that SIPTU members request
that “these individuals treat them
with the respect they are due and
engage in meaningful discussions with their union”.
From 7am today, pickets will
be set up at all CIT entrances.
Student Services Ltd runs four
catering outlets and two retail
outlets on campus in CIT and all
of their 44 employees are members of SIPTU. CIT has 120 employees in total with membership
to the union.
The strike will be focused on
the Bishopstown campus of CIT
and at this stage will not extend
to CIT’s Cork School of Music or
the National Maritime College of
Ireland in Ringaskiddy.

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Fighting for workers’ rights
By Grainne Coyne

I

t doesn’t seem so long ago that
we had our pick of the market when it came to part-time
jobs, summer work, and employment after graduation. In most
cases, a job was a given. Then the
recession came along and burst
the bubble. There were fewer jobs,
attitudes changed and there were
fewer reasons to be picky. The common perception of many is that if
you’re one of the lucky few to have
a job, you should be grateful and
take what you get; complaints are
not welcomed by colleagues and
most certainly not by employers.
But where do you stand when you
feel you’re being treated unfairly at
work, if you’re unsure of how many
hours you should be working, and
unsure of the rights you’re entitled
to if you’re in unpaid employment?
According to the National Employment Rights Authority, we’re
all “entitled to receive basic employment rights” regardless of the
industry we work in. But not many
students are aware of their rights,
and fewer still would question their
employer through fear of being easily replaced. Laura was one of these
students. She studied retail management in GMIT and enjoyed all
aspects of her course except for onethe work experience.
“This was the part of the course
I had been looking forward to for
two years. The placement was for six
months which was great for the experience I needed for when I graduated college. But when it came to the
placement period, everything I had
expected was the total opposite,” she
explains.
Laura says that students in her
course had to go out in search of
employers for their placements and
very few retailers were willing to hire
students for the required length of
time. In the end, she was forced to
take on unpaid work.
“I found it extremely difficult applying for this short period of time.
Eventually one retailer responded;
a high street fashion chain which is
what I dreamed of getting a placement with. An interview was involved and it was successful and I
took the placement – voluntarily,”
she says.
The rules on working hours for
those who work voluntarily vary
depending on the industry, but
usually 30 hours is the upper limit.
Laura ensured that she only worked
that amount and although she enjoyed her work experience, she was
disappointed that she was the only

student out of her class not to gain
full time employment from her
placement.
“It left me feeling disappointed,
used and unfulfilled - I worked for
free for six months and showed
them this is what I want and can
do, but there was no job offer; not
for that store, not even for the other
stores in Ireland or Britain,” she says.
Laura is one of many students
who have more than enough qualifications, but are still unable to find a
job in their desired field. The picture
is very different than it was a few
years ago.
“They knew I was graduating the
next year and that I would have the
qualifications for the job. It was a
downer and the funny thing is they
gave me an excellent performance
appraisal. I am aware that many students are struggling with this situation, and in my opinion, it’s beyond
ridiculous when companies are
complaining there aren’t the right
qualified workers for their jobs,” she
says.
When it comes to internships,
many students are unaware that
they have the same basic employment rights as paid employees. Employees’ rights are the same whether
you’re in paid employment full time
or part time. However, many students are still not aware of this, and
those who are are wary of the unforgiving nature of the job market.
NERA says that the maximum
amount of hours an employee can
work a week is 48, although this
would be less when it comes to part
time employment. Many employees are unfamiliar with the breaks
they are entitled to, and many don’t
receive the breaks they deserve despite working the required amount
of hours. NERA states that “You
have the right to a 15-minute break
if working four and a half hours of
work and a 30 minute break if working six hours of work.”
A DCU student, who wishes to remain anonymous, recounted their
time in part time employment, and
felt they were given more difficult
tasks and assigned more inconvenient hours as a result of being a
student.
“I didn’t feel that I was treated unfairly; I just felt slightly taken advantage of. I lived on a direct route so I
was always scheduled to work the
early mornings or the late nights. I
never got to do the normal 9-5 shifts.
“I think what upset me most was
the fact that I was exhausted and
trying to do a million things at once.
We regularly worked seven and
eight hour turnarounds and I often
had to stay back longer. Sometimes
I was worried that I would miss my
bus home.

“I was aware of fellow employees
who had and had received off the
cuff comments followed by an apology later in the day. I knew that all
I had to do was say something, but
I just couldn’t. I guess I was afraid
that I’d be told I could be easily replaced. People were queuing up to
work in the place and there were
CVs coming in every single day,” explains the student.
The student later left the company
due to time management issues re-

garding college and work, but feels
that many students in employment
are putting up with unfair working
conditions due to the lack of jobs in
the market.
“I think employers feel they can
get away with things a lot easier
now,” explains the student. “I think
they assume that students will just
be so grateful to have a job that they
won’t ask questions for fear of losing
that source of income.”
Legislation protects the rights of

all employees, whether paid, unpaid, full time, or part time, but it
seems that these basic legal rights
are in danger of becoming less of
a concern for both employer and
employee. Whether out of fear, or
a sense of gratitude for simply having a job in the current economic
climate, it seems that employees
are willing to put up with a lot more
from their work in order to avoid receiving a lot less.

14 The College View 21.03.12

FEATURES

Supporting suicide awareness

By Sarah Bermingham

A

suicide awareness conference, hosted by DCU
research psychologist Dr
Aileen O’Reilly, will take
place in the Helix on Tuesday April
3rd. The conference aims to promote awareness of the all-too-often
silent killer by providing information on how best to respond to suicide, and also aims to inspire hope
among those dealing with suicide.
Statistically, Ireland has one of
the highest rates of suicide among
young people in the western world.
An average 79 per 100,000 of Irish
15-29 year-old males died as a result

More information
Console

www.console.ie

Pieta House
www.pieta.ie

1life

www.1life.ie

Samaritans

www.samaritans.org

of suicide between 2004 and 2010,
more than are killed as a result of
cancer or road traffic accidents. According to the Central Statistics Office’s latest Men and Women in Ireland study, men are four times more
likely to be affected than women.
A total of 386 males took their own
lives in 2010, compared to 100
women.
The range of circumstances
which can lead people to take their
own lives are as many and varied
as the profiles of people affected.
A Suicide Support and Information System (SSIS) study, funded by
the National Office for Suicide Prevention and undertaken between
September 2008 and April 2011,
highlighted the possible impact of
the economic downturn on suicide
rates. Of people who died from suicide in this period, it found 38.1% to
have been unemployed and 32.8%
to have been employed in the construction sector. Many had a history
of self-harm and had abused alcohol and/or other drugs in the year
prior to death.
According to samartians.org,
people often look for a single cause
as to why a person has taken their
own life. In reality, the way someone feels comes about as a result of
many different factors, and in the
case of someone who takes their
own life, these factors have built up
“to the point where the person can
see no other way to cope with what

they’re experiencing”. The kinds of
problems which might increase the
risk of suicide include a recent loss
or the break-up of a close relationship, an unhappy change in circumstances, painful and/or disabling illness, history of suicide in the family,
and depression.
One possible reason why more
males than females have taken
their lives in recent times is because
women are generally more likely to
talk about problems and personal
issues, and to seek medical help
when required. Samaritans encourage men to also talk about issues
affecting them, and not to feel pressured into hiding their feelings out
of embarrassment or concern not to
burden others. Their website offers
a check-list style guide to the possible factors and symptoms which
may be exhibited by a person at risk.
There are a range of behavioural
patterns, thoughts and feelings a
friend can look out for if worried
about someone who they feel may
be at risk. Someone who has experienced a major loss or disappointment, who has become very
withdrawn and is finding it difficult
to relate to others, feels worthless
or isolated, or whose eating and/or
sleeping patterns have become very
disrupted, may be feeling very distressed – they may really appreciate
you asking how they are. You don’t
even have to have all the answers.
Just showing a friend you are there

for them lets them know that you
care.
Irish organisations such as Pieta
House, Console, 3Ts, and 1Life are
also there for individuals who may
be at risk of taking their own lives.
Joan Freeman, a practising psychologist, spent three years researching
how best she could help people who
were feeling suicidal to get through
their tough time. Pieta House, the
Centre for the Prevention of SelfHarm or Suicide, was born out of
this.
Having opened its doors in Lucan
in January 2006, Pieta House has so
far helped 4,000 people, grown to almost 60 therapists and admin staff,
and now consists of five centres in
Dublin and Limerick. Freeman was
presented with a 2011 Rehab People
of the Year Award from An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, for her commitment and dedication to the prevention of suicide and self-harm.
A number of other charitable organisations also exist to promote the
prevention of suicide. 3Ts (Turn the
Tide of Suicide) was established to
raise awareness of the problem of
suicide in Ireland and to raise funds
to help lower suicide rates through
dedicated research, educational
support and intervention.
The organisation funded in large
part an All-Ireland Suicide Survey,
published in 2009, which probed
behind the stark suicide statistics
in Ireland; particularly during the

previous five years. The team interviewed over 250 relatives in 23
counties in relation to deaths from
suicide of 100 young people. Among
its findings was the realisation that
70% of cases involved a diagnosable
“mental illness”, while obvious and
apparent gaps were found to exist
particularly in youth mental health
services.
3Ts joined forces with Console in
2009 to launch the “1Life” 24-hour
suicide prevention helpline and
text message service. The helpline is
most useful to those who are feeling
very low or have suicidal thoughts,
as well as to anyone bereaved or
affected by suicide. 1Life service
provides counsellors who are nonjudgemental, empathetic and supportive, who work together with
callers to solve problems. Console,
meanwhile, is a national suicide
prevention, intervention and postintervention service. It supports
those in suicidal crisis as well as
those bereaved by suicide, through
professional counselling, support
and helpline services.
Suicide has the potential to affect
anyone. Following the examples
set by these groups and the work
they have done in the area in recent
years, it seems the issue is best dealt
with directly - by talking about our
problems, by educating ourselves
and others, and not letting the issue of mental and emotional health
be one of embarrassment into the
future.
Provisionally, the April 3rd conference will feature: a keynote address
from Dan Neville TD, President,
Irish Association of Suicidology; the
presentation of RTÉ documentary
series “I See a Darkness”, featuring
personal testimonies from Caroline McGuigan, Peter Moroney and
Bernadine McDonnell; workshops
on health and wellbeing and mindfulness-based stress reduction, and
more. Those interested in attending (the event is primarily aimed
towards a DCU staff and student audience) should visit http://bit.ly//
Ayails to book a place.
Meanwhile, music icons Adam
Clayton and Imelda May are encouraging people to put their best foot
forward and wear silly or unusual
shoes, and make a €2 donation, on
April 26 for ‘Walk in my Shoes Day’.
The ‘Walk in my Shoes’ organisation
aims to provide free mental health
services for young adults in Ireland,
which has one of the highest suicide
rates in the EU for 14- 24 year olds.
Clayton said: “Suicide takes the lives
of more young men in Ireland than
road accidents... The money raised
will be used to put young people
back on the road to mental health”.
For more information log on to
www.walkinmyshoes.ie

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21.03.12

15

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Power play
With election season on the
horizon, Sarah Doran asks
why young people get
involved in politics?

F

rom Aristotle to Ahern, and
Kennedy to Kenny, politics
and power have been at the
heart of society for thousands of years.
Today, the game is still at the centre of modern life, even though the
players and systems have changed.
Politics is most commonly associated with the things “this government” aren’t doing to fix the
mess “that government drove us
into”. “Politicians, sure they’re all
the same,” says the man giving a vox
pop to the local radio station. Disenchantment is widespread.
At university level throughout
the country, there’s talk of the “careerists” in USI and Students’ Union
cliques in certain institutions. “The
popular people are the ones that
win the SU elections,” one UCD student was overheard to say at their
most recent election count.
So if all that is true, then why on
earth would anyone consider getting involved in the ‘fun house’ that
is modern day politics at any level?
“I decided to get involved in SU
politics because I truly believed that
it was a way to make a difference
in student life,” explains UCCSU
Equality Officer Audrey Walsh. “Beginning college as the economic
downturn really began to affect
students. It seemed to me to be
more important than ever to make
students’ voices heard in the political arena, and I wanted to be one of
those voices.”
Walsh has served as a class rep
twice, was previously UCCSU Gender Equality Officer, and recently
ran unsuccessfully for the Welfare
Officer position. She admits that SU
politics is marred by a democratic
deficit due to low voter turnout.
“I think that there is a duty on all
SU executives to work hard to promote transparency and stem the
awful tide of political apathy among
students. However it is also the responsibility of students to educate
themselves on the issues and make
informed decisions on candidates
running. It’s the Students’ Union after all,” she says.
Outside university, Walsh is also
active with Labour Youth. Youth
wings of political parties have become increasingly popular in recent

years and it is among those ranks
that DCU student Keith Hoare is politically active.
“I was the tender age of 14 when
I joined Young Fine Gael,” Hoare
expounds.
The political bug bit him when his
father was campaigning for the local
Hospital Action Committee in the
2002 general election.
”I remember sitting in front of the
TV glued to RTE’s election coverage
of the results and whatever it was, I
could not get away from it,” he says.
Hoare has no family background
in politics but says that “something
in my mind attached to Fine Gael,
and I do not know what it was. Not
long after that election passed we
got a leaflet in the door from my local FG TD Denis Naughten, where
there was an option to join up, and
I did.”
Hoare believes that politicians
can effect real change.
“It’s the politicians who can be
described as honest, decent and
motivated by wanting to do their
country proud that really make the
difference. That is because they
manage not only to improve things
but they are able to bring the people
with them. A politician who can do
the courageous thing and manage
to bring the people, young and old
with him/her is the politician who
can make a real difference,” he says.
Hoare believes that ordinary
citizens have the power to change
things too.
“Last month, DCU YFG in a committee discussion agreed on a motion for conference calling on the
government to legislate for gay
adoption. After previous rejections
of similar motions, National Conference this year voted to accept this.
Now, DCU YFG has changed the
policy of YFG,” he explains.
“If you’re motivated and driven
by wanting to do the best for your
country, then you will find that it is
that very passion itself that will see
you make a difference in one form
or another,” he adds.
Councillor Chris Bond agrees.
The South Dublin County Councillor first became involved with the
Labour Party when he was 17 years
old and went on to become active
with the UCD branch of the youth

wing, UCDSU and USI.
“Politicians need to lead by example and prove that they are in fact
in it to make a difference,” argues
Bond. He agrees that this isn’t always the case, but says he is aware
of many situations where politicians
have taken the lead on issues like
crime, public transport and local
services, and have made a huge difference to people’s quality of life.
Bond recognises that the Irish
people are becoming disillusioned
with politics.
“Serious reform of the political
system is needed and I think all parties will agree on that. There needs
to be a serious debate on issues, not
just a back and forth partisan game
and constant posturing,” he says.
Bond believes that unless action is
taken people will no longer want to
get involved in politics. Keith Hoare,
though, has a more positive outlook.
“Whenever unpopular decisions
are being made, particularly austerity measures, faith in politics falls
but this is simply a cycle, which occurs in every generation,” he argues.
“Things will pick up in the next

Image credit: multicitizens.wordpress.com
three to four years, and people will
move on again with pride and a
sense of relief. I actually think this
poses a great opportunity to get
involved in politics, whether it be
through a youth political party or
whatever route.
“If people want to ensure that the
mistakes of the past are avoided and
if people want to make a difference
in their country, then politics is the
avenue to seek that input.”
However, there is one thing that
Walsh, Hoare and Bond agree on:
politics has historically been a boy’s
game.
“Politics is a boys’ club and I’m
ashamed of that,” Hoare says. “To
have 15% women in the Dáil when
party membership is pretty much
equal between men and women is a
disgrace which is man-made.”
He wants to see gender quotas
introduced.
“At the moment, there are many
politicians who are there and simply
contribute nothing. They get on the
ballot paper not because of merit
or anything else other than incumbency. We need fresh politics, a bet-

ter representative politics and that is
one where women are at its heart.”
“There needs to be an overwhelming push at the grassroots
level for women to become involved
in politics,” Walsh argues. “Quotas
at local election level would help
but so would targeted mentoring
schemes and better political education in secondary schools, inspiring
and enabling young women to take
their first steps into political life.”
UCD’s Rachel Breslin can count
herself among those who have taken a giant leap. The former UCDSU
Welfare Officer was recently elected
Students’ Union President. She is
the first woman to win the role in
over 18 years.
DCUSU has had four female presidents in the last 12 years. Could
there be a fifth for 2012/13?
Politics: it’s a really crazy show
where anything goes. Why do people get involved? To make a difference? Or because it’s a whole lot of
fun and there are prizes to be won?
Either way, don’t forget, you have to
use your brain if you want to play the
game.

16 The College View 21.03.12

FEATURES

How to…

stay safe
on campus

By Jenny Darmody
Features Editor

E

veryone gets a bit complacent around campus at
times. Students come and
go every day during term
time and it’s a home away from
home to many. Therefore, it’s easy
to feel overly relaxed and let your
guard down a bit. But just because
you feel safe, doesn’t mean you are.
Earlier this month, a DCU student
and her friend were attacked on
the Ballymun Avenue in DCU by a
group of non-students. It was only
about 8.30pm. DCU campus is a
safe place with plenty of security but
incidents do happen and there are
ways for students to avoid them and
stay safe.
Students should always be careful
walking around campus at night.
Keep an eye out for any suspicious

individuals or activities and walk in
groups where possible, especially
down long roads such as Ballymun
Avenue.

Top 5…

Image credit: Frances Mulraney
Don’t take out your phone, iPod,
money or anything that could be a
prime target for muggers and will
have you distracted from walking

W

1. Glenn, 20, UCD
“I don’t exactly remember this happening, but was well informed the
next day. Apparently I was kicked
out of the nightclub and decided to
take a little nap outside the cinema
while I waited for everyone else

to come out. My friends found me
passed out with the Gardai circled
around me, pointing and laughing.
They brought me to the taxi office
where I stumbled into the toilet,
which they found me in half an hour
later, slumped against the wall having wet myself. I woke up the next
morning in a friend’s house, with no
memory, smelling quite unpleasant
and missing a shoe.”

ous and your personal safety is always more valuable than anything
in your bag or pockets.
If you live on campus, always make
sure to lock your door and don’t let
anyone in that you’re unsure of. You
might feel like you’re overreacting
but always report any suspicious
behaviour to DCU security or the
Gardaí. Never hesitate to tell someone. Make sure you know the 24/7
campus security number: 700 5999.
Students are not supposed to be in
a constant state of fear. DCU has 24
hour security personnel. There are
also CCTV cameras with recorded
video constantly used to monitor
the campus. There is no need to
constantly be afraid, as incidents
are few and far between. But they do
happen, and precautions should be
taken to ensure a level of personal
safety is maintained at all times and
particularly at night.

most embarrassing
drunken moments

By Niamh Devereux

e all have those nights.
When a cheap bottle
of wine from Tesco
and the ‘three Jagerbombs for a tenner’ deal seems like
a great idea – until the next morning. You lie in bed feeling like death
is imminent, and grimace from both
the pounding headache and those
dreaded flashbacks. There is nothing worse than remembering your
cringey antics from the night before and hoping that you still have
friends. The following stories highlight how alcohol is, more often than
not, a detrimental factor in our lives.

around. Try not to listen to music
when walking down long roads by
yourself. Not only does it distract
you and stop you from staying alert,
but most of us listen to music loud
enough to block out most external
sound, so you won’t be able to hear
people walking up behind you.
If you have to walk down a dark
stretch of path, make sure you keep
some distance between you and
bushes, alleyways and doors. Avoid
taking shortcuts through dimly lit
areas. The long way home is always better than the dangerous way
home.
Walk against the traffic. This means
walking on the side of the road that
cars come towards you instead of
up behind you where you can’t see
them. Walk confidently and purposefully and avoid sending out signals that you’re vulnerable.
Never try and hold onto your stuff if
you are being mugged. It’s danger-

2. Chloe, 21, St. Pats.

bed and let their dogs out, which
I don’t know what happened to.
When I got back in to the taxi, I continued to torment poor Cathy, shaking her seat and singing loudly- until she lost her temper, stopped the
bus, came around to where I was sitting, slapped me in the face and put
on my seatbelt. I haven’t been able
to look her in the eye since.”

dad opened the front door just as
I tumbled sideways into the flowerpots and he had to carry me into
my room. If that wasn’t bad enough,
when my mam came down to see
what was wrong, she opened the
bedroom door to see me peeing on
my bed, shouting ‘Mam get out, I’m
on the toilet!’ The next day was fairly
awkward.”

3. Cathy, 21, DCU

5. Sarah, 20, DIT

“A few months ago, I fell asleep in
the toilets of the Porterhouse and
when I woke up the whole place
was deserted. All the lights were off
and I didn’t know how to get out
so I thought it’d be a good idea to
try and barge through the chained
doors. This managed to set off the
alarm and caused five squad cars to
land down. The Guards were fairly
shocked to find me in there!”

“I went on a holiday to Lanzarote
last summer, and one night after one
too many drinks, I passed out at a
house party. I didn’t think anything
of it until the next day when I discovered there was a video circulating of
me being ‘tea-bagged’ by one of the
boys at the party. Not only did all my
friends see the lovely video, but he
used it to get tourists into the nightclub we worked in, and also showed
my boss.”

“A crowd of my friends and I were
overloaded in our local taxi driver
Cathy’s bus on the way to a 21st. The
Guards noticed this and began to
follow us, so good ole Cathy took a
detour and pulled in to her house,
which she shares with her girlfriend
- another local taxi driver. While she
was waiting for her girlfriend to ar4. Lucy, 21, UCD
rive with another bus, I thought
As Ron Burgundy once said, ‘Stay
it’d be hilarious to run around her “One night I got so drunk that I had Classy.’ Although he obviously has
house taking pictures of the couple’s to be taken home from a 21st. My never drank cheap Tesco wine.

The
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Through my Eyes…
Split ends
By Fiona McGrath

D

ivorce- it’s not an easy
thing to go through. I still
don’t understand everything about my parents’
divorce. When my mom tried to
tell me that she and my dad were
divorcing, I didn’t get the message.
I guess that was because of the way
she told me. I was eight and it was
a Thursday evening, and I was in
the sitting room watching Buffy the
Vampire Slayer. When the show was
over, my mom decided that it was
time to tell me.
“What would you think if your
dad got his own house?” she said.
I thought that would be great- we
would have two homes. “Yeah, that
would be cool,” I replied in my naivety, and that was the end of the
conversation. Now I see what she
meant, but at that age how was I supposed to know that a second house
meant divorce? My mom didn’t do
a good job of explaining what was
really happening, but in fairness,
there’s no guide on how to tell your
children you’re getting divorced.
Everything changed after that day.
My brother and sister stopped talking to my parents and I didn’t fully
know why or what was going on. My
mom moved out and I figured that it
would be ok, that this couldn’t happen to my family. I kept going over
everything I had done wrong in the
previous months, trying to figure out
if it was because of me. It had to be
a direct result of something I did or
didn’t do. My parents were happy,
or they seemed to be in my eyes. I
couldn’t find any reason that could
have caused this. What had I done
that made my parents unable to be
with each other anymore? Why did
this happen? I didn’t find the answers to those questions until years
later.
Our house went up for sale, and
everything crumbled. They took
away my home, my room, and my
memories. What hurts me the most
now is I can’t even remember the
last night we stayed in that house as
a family, or when we stopped being
a family. I can’t recall the last night
I spent in my home before it was

gone. I guess if I knew there was going to be a last time, I would have
anticipated it. But as far as I was concerned, this came out of nowhere. I
still haven’t forgiven my parents for
that, and I still don’t know if I will.
My mom and dad both moved
into new homes and my siblings and
I had to split our time between them.
Everything was divided. Occasions
that involved the family had to be
cut in two, and we had to fit both my
mom and dad in. I always remember being exhausted during those
days. Birthdays became dreaded
events and Christmas became more
of a chore than a happy holiday.
Everything that had been familiar was ruined. As time moved on,
we learned to cope somewhat with
the split life, but it never got easier.
I never talked to anyone about my
parents, even though my family and
friends always asked me if I was ok.
My reply was simple and false: “I’m
fine.” That was all I could say. I was
so afraid of telling someone how I
really felt- hurt, betrayed and furious. I couldn’t say these things because I was so worried how it would
affect my parents. I thought it would

“What hurts me
the most now is
I can’t even
remember the last
night we stayed
in that house as a
family, or when we
stopped being a
family.”
kill them to know what they did to
me. So I kept quiet. It was the easiest
thing to do. Or so I thought. My dad
got engaged to his new girlfriend. I
couldn’t believe he would do this to
us, to me. But I said I was fine with it.
My dad told me this while we were

driving to school. I remember being
stunned at what he said, and especially at the time he chose to tell me.
Now I look back at it and the way my
dad went about this still surprises
me. But I know he never meant to
hurt me; he just didn’t know how to
tell me. I got out of the car, in shock,
and my dad drove off. That’s the last
thing I remember from that day. The
rest is a blur.
My sister and brother were so
furious with my dad that they just
couldn’t deal with it, so they decided to travel, and I was left alone.
They were old enough to run away
from our problems. I wasn’t, so I had
to keep pretending that I was fine.
My mom never opposed my dad’s
marriage. In fact, she said it was a
good thing because he was happy,
like she was now. But I thought that
was all a lie. I didn’t like going over
to my dad’s while his new fiancé was
there. I felt like she was stealing my
time with my dad because she was
always around.

Image credit: divorcefilers.com
Instead of being angry with my
dad, I took it out on my dad’s fiancé, and in retrospect that was completely unfair on her. She was trying
her best with me, and I just threw it
back in her face. Even my mom told
me to try and get along with her, but
I couldn’t because that would be
betraying my mom. I thought my
dad’s fiancé was trying to replace
my mom, and I was definitely not
going to let that happen. During the
summer, I was in my mom’s kitchen,
and I burst out crying. I couldn’t
stop. She knew immediately what
it was about. She tried to console
me, but nothing would work. I had
kept everything bottled up for four
years. After two hours of non-stop
tears, I was calm enough to tell my
mom how I felt about everything regarding her, my dad, and my dad’s
marriage. I felt a weight lift off me. It
was as if I could breathe properly for
the first time in ages. My mom then
told my dad what I had said, and he
sat down with me and we talked. I

saw him cry, and for the first time
I realised my dad was human, and
could make mistakes like I could. My
dad went on to get remarried, and
now I am happy for him. I get along
with my dad’s wife and my mom is
so much happier now. I understand
why my parents went their separate
ways. They weren’t happy together.
I used to wonder why they wouldn’t
stay together for us. Now I know that
if they had, we would have hated
them by now because they would be
so miserable in their lives.
I had so much anger towards my
parents for so long that I should have
talked to someone sooner instead of
leaving it to build up for years. I still
get upset about it, but I have learned
to accept it - we all have. I won’t
sugar coat it; it’s hard and painful
and you will feel so let down by your
family, but you need to understand
that it will get easier. Your parents
will always do what is best for you,
and I guess that’s what they did for
us. We are all happier now.

Burgers, beer, wine and music; four simple ingredients for
an enjoyable night, the recipe
for which has been mastered at
Jo’Burger. Established in 2007,
this Rathmines restaurant offers
a laidback dining experience and
good quality food.
Yet the Jo’Burger experience is
more than the good food on offer. From the house DJ playing
90’s electronic tracks while you
eat, to the graffiti covered walls
that keep you amused while you
wait for your food, Jo’Burger is a
creative and unique restaurant
with a real novelty twist.
Its many quirky features make
Jo’Burger a popular alternative
dining venue. 90’s board games
are available for your table while
you browse through menus that
are found in old comic book annuals and sip your drink from a
vintage glass jar.
Thankfully, however, there is
nothing ‘old’ or dated about the
food they produce.
Taking the simple burger to
a new level, Jo’Burger provides
a huge variety of ‘styles’ using
organic Irish beef, chicken and
lamb, combined imaginatively
with other quality ingredients.
Each burger is named after
a South African township such
as the Molestone (a peanut and
chili sauce with coriander) and
the Zondi (green Thai curry
mayo with coriander and chili).
If burgers don’t take your fancy,
you can choose to have any of
the burger styles in a flour tortilla
wrap. There are also a number of
impressive alternatives designed
for vegetarians, but tasty enough
even for meat-eaters.
The generous sized portions
will leave you feeling full to the
brim. One must, however, find
room to sample the variety of
sides on offer. Sides, such as
sweet potato fries, onion rings,
and bush fries (Jo’Burger’s take
on the standard fries) will be devoured at your table in no time.
On average a burger will set you
back approximately €12, while
sides are about €4, which for
what you get, is a very reasonable
price.
Jo’Burger’s laidback atmosphere will relax you as soon as
you walk through the door, and
with the delicious food and accommodating staff, you are sure
to have a thoroughly enjoyable
dining experience.

Journo Soc trip to London
By Sarah Bermingham

D

CU Journalism Society
enjoyed a short trip
to London last week,
taking in visits to the
BBC Television Centre and News
International’s
London
Times
newsroom.
Twenty-four society members
seized the opportunity to visit the
English capital during reading
week, staying at the central St.
Christopher’s Village hostel from
the 14th to the 16th of March.
Despite an early start on
Wednesday morning, all were
excited andready to fit shopping,
sightseeing and exploring into our
busy schedule which centred on
these media-themed visits.Luckily,
we would have the weather on our
side, with three mild days and plenty
of sunshine.
Having reached our hostel shortly
after midday, following a 1½ hour
bus journey from Stansted and tube

connection, lunch was in order.
Members refuelled in a variety of
pleasant nearby restaurants before
some set out forthe BBC.
Here we were given a behindthe-scenes tour of the television
studios. We got to see dressing
rooms, rehearsals of current shows,
sets and props. That evening, the
entire group had the opportunity
to attend a BBCstudio recording of
comedy panel show “A Short History
of Everything Else” and it was
interesting to witness the recording
of a new television show. We
returned to our hostel, where some
took part in the hostel’s karaoke.
More members of our group would
visit BBC on Friday.
With Thursday morning to
ourselves, a group of first year
members, including myself, visited
Camden Town markets; a great
location for a day blessed with good
weather. Camden had shopping,
and eating, and exploring was the
perfect escape from the usual mill of
lectures and assignments. Another
group visited Hyde Park, taking in

some of the sights. The possibilities
for things to do in this city really are
endless, and cater for a wide variety
of tastes.
With interest and intrigue we
visited the Times newsroom in
News International’s headquarters
that afternoon. This was a rare
opportunity to gain an insight into
operations at a busy newsroom in
the capital.
A selection of staff members
described to us their role at the
paper and current projects they are
involved with. Following this, we
were given a tour of the newsroom
where staff were busy working
towards deadlines for the paper’s
next edition.
Our experience of the London
nightlife scene, as sampled on
Thursday, was perhaps the one
downside of the city. The clubs
seemed either empty or expensive;
despite gaining free admission
to one club, £5 prices for shots
turned us off. We returned earlier
than envisaged to our hostel, again
staying up chatting and having a

laugh.
In terms of expense, day tickets
for the central London underground
zones cost £7, while Oyster cards
can be purchased for £5 and topped
up as often as required. Food and
drink in supermarkets is generally
much cheaper than at home, while
a restaurant main course typically
varied from £6/7 to £11/12. London
is home to as wide a selection of
restaurants, of all international
cuisines, as one can imagine.
Tickets for West End shows can be
purchased from Leicester Square
ticket booths from £20 on the day.
Wemet in Victoria station at half
past three on Friday afternoon to bid
a reluctant goodbye to the exciting
city.Some slight airport drama
provided a high-octane end to our
three days of fun and adventure;
luckily however, we made the return
flight home. Seated amidst plenty of
tourists no doubt looking forward to
Paddy’s Day celebrations in Ireland,
we were more excited about the
prospects of our beds and having a
good sleep.

The golden city of Prague
By Katerina Valova
With spring around the corner, most
of us get itchy feet, want to pack the
bags and head away for a little holiday. Traditionally, Prague is one of
the top destinations for a weekend
break but why not see more and
make it just a little bit longer? You
won’t regret it.
Being from the Czech Republic I
sometimes take the city for granted.
To be fair, it has been years since I
have spent any time in Prague and
things have changed considerably
– the biggest change being the increase in prices. Still, Prague has
a lot to offer without blowing your
budget and remains as beautiful as
ever.
I would highly recommend staying in the Lesser Town, located
in the old Baroque quarter of the
city within walking distance of the
city centre and its nightclubs. We
booked our hotel, Jeleni Dvur on
www.bookings.com and managed
to get bed and breakfast for approximately €80 per person for three
nights. Considering that our room
had a view of Prague’s Castle, the
price was great. However, if you are
going with a group of friends, hostels are the way forward.
The historic Lesser Town with its
cobblestone streets, countless architectural wonders and Prague’s Cas-

tle in the middle of it all, is buzzing
with tourists every day of the year.
Naturally, the local pubs and restaurants pump up their prices. Do not
give in and walk into the first restaurant you see (we did and at five euro
for a bottle of beer we all had to double-check we were indeed in Prague
and not Temple Bar). The cheaper

pubs tend to be in side alleys, often
just a few hundred yards away from
the overpriced ones, and they offer
gorgeous Czech cuisine and a pint
of beer or a glass of wine for around
one or two euro. When you get tired
of sightseeing and partying (both of
which are literally never ending in
Prague) take a hike up Petrin Hill to

enjoy outstanding views of the city.
April/May is the perfect time to
visit Prague; the weather is nice
and less humid than summer and
it is not as crowded as the summer
season either. Both Ryanair and Aer
Lingus fly directly from Dublin to
Prague for reasonable prices, so go
and have fun!

The College View 21.03.12 21

SPORTS

SPORTS@thecollegeview.com

DCU Force go out on their shield
IT Carlow
DCU Force

25
17

By Tom Rooney
At I.T Carlow
There is no amount of adjectives regardless how complimentary, that
numb the pain of defeat, but the
Force took bravery and intensity to
new levels particularly in the second half, in an All Ireland Semi Final
where the odds were against them
from the get go.
DCU were without six first choice
players and two of these omissions
were only apparent to the coaching
staff twenty four hours before kickoff. This was compounded by the
unenviable task of turning over the
tournament favorites on their own
patch.
The Force, however, did themselves no favours; their first half display, while gallant, was strewn with
errors. Indiscipline at the breakdowncoupled with Carlow out half
Brian Croke’s accurate kicking from
resulting penalties kept much of the
play inside Force territory.
The Carlow lineout was the platform for everything they did right in
the first half. Their 8-9-10 axis functioned optimally, allowing them to
play with real width. In truth, was it
not for resolute defending,the game
could have been all but over inside
the opening thirty minutes.
Carlow were the first to draw
blood. Fullback Robbie Waters cut
through the DCU midfield, and after
fielding a relieving kick from Paul

By Tom Rooney
Deputy Sports Editor

O’Loughlin, he found centre Martin
O’Neill with a terrific pass, who had
two men to beat before going under
the posts.
Despite considerable possession around the fringes, the Force
struggled to put any meaningful offensive moves together. An aggressive Carlow defensive line can claim
some credit for this, but a litany of
wayward passes and a misfiring lineout was the real problem. Killian
McDonagh slotted over a penalty
for the Force’s only score of the half.
The lax passing also cost the Force
on the score board which allowed
the hosts to turn the ball over inside
their own twenty two. Winger Alan
Kenny made fifty yards down the
blindside channel and after three
quick passes inside, Martin O’Neill
was over for his second. Conse-

quently, the hosts enjoyed an eleven
point cushion into the break.
Within five minutes of the restart
Carlow were another eight points to
the good, all stemming from DCU’s
indiscipline at the breakdown. First
Brian Croke sent over a penalty.
Thereafter, he found touch with another and the ensuing lineout set
up some superb interplay between
backs and forwards allowing fullback Robbie Waters to touch down.
From that moment there was a
seismic shift in momentum and the
Force, with the rain teaming down,
grabbed the game by the scruff and
made it a dog fight. Carlow were not
ready for this and their error count
multiplied rapidly. The visitors put
the ball up the jumper, attacking
the gain line with a palpable ferocity. No one typified this effort more

than No. 8 Isaac Porter, playing with
zero regard for his own physical well
-being.
DCU had ten minutes of unanswered possession when tight head
Killian Byrne burrowed over. From
the restart, the Force found themselves inside the twenty two and
after turning the screw on Carlow in
three consecutive scrums, they won
a penalty. Hooker Cathal O’Connor
found his man with the subsequent
lineout, the Force mauled on ten
yards before O’Connor went over.
With two minutes remaining,
it was a one score game. Carlow,
however, were visibly relieved when
the referee awarded them a penalty
inside the DCU twenty two which
Croke nailed and in the process,
quelled any remaining hope of a
Force revival.

Ireland have many questions to answer
By Will Slattery

Which issue should we get to first?
The scrum? The coaches? The
handling? The weather? So many
things went so many kinds of wrong
against England that even choosing
which one to address first is a frugal
exercise.
The 6 Nations finale was the worst
performance Ireland has had under
Declan Kidney. England bowed out
of the World Cup quarter final in
mediocre fashion and decided to
reinvent the team. Ireland bowed
out of the World Cup quarter final in
mediocre fashion and kept the exact
same squad together barring injury.
That is where Kidney is to blame.
Wales have won three Grand Slams
in seven years with three drastically
different teams. Granted Wales have
a larger talent base coming through
but Warren Gatland seems to enjoy
the pressure that comes with mak-

Bad week
for Rugby
sides in IT
Carlow

ing selection gambles. Does Kidney?
Too often the call for change is
so deafening from the fan base that
Kidney has no choice but to make
a change, other times his selections
show a stubborn streak. Stubbornness is as bad a trait as a coach can
have. It may well be a tipping point
for Kidney also.
The knee jerk clamour of “sack the
manager!” is lazy and unconstructive analysis for the most part. But
the question is not should we sack
Kidney but who would replace him
if he left? There is the usual merry
go round of other countries’ cast offs
but there are many home grown talents flying under the radar.
Leinster and Munster’s conveyor
belt of talent is backboned by the
schools system and the structures
put in place by Noel McNamara in
Clongowes and Kelvin Leahy in St
Michaels are very professional and
impressive. The sides to come out
of both schools in recent years contain future internationals and those

coaches play a large hand in their
development.
And after all, it was the schools
game where Declan Kidney first
earned his reputation. The decision
to hire someone with no professional coaching experience is one that
won’t be made but with the strong
talent coming out of these schools
it is certainly a conversation worth
having.
And after last weekend’s problems with the scrum maybe McNamara could take his front row with
him. What was strange about the
disintegration of the Irish scrum was
that in the corresponding fixture last
year, the roles were reversed. And as
with so many other aspects of the
Irish performance, everyone is just
asking “what happened”?
Some pundits thought there
could be a lasting mental effect for
the front row after taking such a
thrashing, but this isn’t the first time
the trio of Healy, Best and Ross have
been on the back foot. Healy was

taken off during the first half of the
Heineken Cup semi final two years
ago and the Leinster scrum in the
first half of last year’s final was as
bad as last weekend.
Wounds heal, players move on
and there will always be another
scrum to hit or a ball to catch. Well,
that’s if the players dry their hands
before the next match. The handling
was not only bad last weekend, it
was embarrassing.
From the start of the campaign
there has been a slow and lethargic
malaise surrounding some players
in particular Heaslip and O’Brien.
Leinster wouldn’t have two Heineken Cups without them but they are
barely justifying their place in the
Irish team at the moment. They
simply weren’t able to generate their
usual power.
It is not all doom and gloom however, as many Irishmen exit the campaign in better form than when they
entered. Kearney, Bowe and Ferris
are all very much at the forefront of

The IT Carlow campus has become an all too familiar sight for
Bernard Jackman and his players
over the last fortnight. All three
of the men’s sides have arrived
there in touching distance of an
All Ireland Final, only to come up
empty handed on each occasion.
The Seconds, who lost a substantial amount of key players
to the injury- laden senior side,
gave a credible account of themselves against a visibly bigger and
more settled Carlow outfit, losing
in the end by 25-12. DCU’s Stephen Murray scored the game’s
outstanding try bursting three
tackles off a solid DCU scrum just
inside the Carlow twenty two.
A week after the Senior and
Second sides fell short, the Fresher side travelled to the midlands
for a third crack of the whip. But
alas, like their colleagues the
first years were substantially depleted; a squad of only seventeen
travelled. Man for man Carlow
were no better than their visitors but crucially had strength in
numbers. In moments of adversity they were able to empty a
tried and tested bench, which
ultimately proved the difference.
Alan Gibbons and Colm Coffey
crossed the whitewash for DCU
in a 35-17 defeat.
All is not lost however as on
Friday next the Ladies side take
on Cork IT in the Division 2 All
Ireland final at the Mardyke in
UCC. Here’s hoping Sinead Byrne’s side can cap off an excellent
campaign and bring some silverware back to the capital.
any of the premature Lions talk.
But the team in general is in a
tricky place going forward. Kidney is
contracted until 2013, which means
Ireland are either stuck with him
or only giving a coach two years to
make a mark before the World Cup.
When you look around at the landscape of the 6 Nations you can’t help
but think the management partook
in some laurel resting. Everyone
knows the scrum is an issue and that
the squad could do with some freshening up.
And it’s not as if everybody is
jumping to conclusions on the back
of one loss. No, the worse part of
where Ireland is now is that there
were areas of concern and many
voiced them. And that is the management’s biggest failing of all.

22 The College View 21.03.12

SPORTS

GAA’s disregarded community
Two world champions, but no recognition
say Ciaran Neary and Gavin Cawley as
they speak with Eoghan Cormican about
the struggles facing DCU’s Handball club

I

n DCU quarters, each GAA
team carries a couple of wellknown,
talented
figures.
Fresher Padraig Berhony is one
of the most promising young hurlers
west of the Shannon, Lindsay Peat
and Lyndsey Davey are recognised
as two of the country’s most prolific
ladies footballers, while the all-conquering Sigerson side is fleeced with
a multitude of household names.
But what of our lowly handballers,
how many of them could we name
or claim to be familiar with. For the
large majority of sporting enthusiasts on campus, the answer is none.
Ever since its inception, handball has always been the minority
branch of the GAA and DCU is no
exception, a sentiment shared by
Gavin Cawley and DCU handball
chairperson Ciaran Neary.
Neary is quick to acknowledge
the work of GAA Director Michael
Kennedy in attempting to build the
profile of handball around DCU, but
says a lot yet remains to be done.
“Up to this year no GAA officercame to see a training session or a
match and I wouldn’t say that a lot
of the hierarchy would know where
the handball court is. Michael (Kennedy) has been in attendance at a
number of games and it is helping
the club going forward.”
Neary remarked that before this
year a number of handballers took
a dim view of the GAA club be-

cause players felt they weren’t being
looked after.“There was a bad image
of the GAA Club within the handball
club.”
The Kilkenny native is clearly aggrieved with the number of court
hours allotted to the handball club,
especially as it used by a plethora of
other clubs despite the fact that the
adjacent squash courts are regularly
empty.
“The most annoying thing within
the handball club is the way that we
only get the court for 6 hours a week
and for only 3 days during the week.
A lot of the time there is two vacant
squash courts but other sports are
using the handball court like judo
and UFC.
“It is hard to promote the game
when things like this are happening. Every night of the week we have
players standing outside the court
looking in and can’t get playing.
“Some of the members of the GAA
committee also look down their
noses at the handball club which is
very unfair,” continues Neary, before
adding that he and Gavin Cawley are
well used to receiving comments
such as “is there a committee meeting on” when the two players might
be just standing in the hub having a
chat.
Cawley admits there is nowhere
near as much recognition for handball in DCU by comparison with
football, hurling, ladies football and

DCU Handball Chairperson Ciaran Neary pictured receiving his All Star award in 2009 has expressed concern at
the last of recognition and respect for DCU’s handball club | Image by Sportsfile
camogie.
“Peter Hughes and Ciaran Neary
are two of the best handballers on
the colleges handball circuit, but
they are not known within DCU,”
says Cawley, adding that people
outside DCU recognise and respect
their handball club, but it’s a different story on campus.
“It is funny to think that we have
two players who have world championships to their names in the college, one who has two, but if you
were to ask outside of the handball
club no one would know while everyone would know who played
county minor for a 15 man team.
Football and hurling have 14 other players around you, handball
doesn’t,” Neary told College View
Sport.
Aside from the struggles off court,
on the court it has been another
hugely successful year for the club.
Several finals were contested at all
grades with many handballers enjoying success.

At the Dublin championships,
victory was achieved in the senior
doubles, while at the All-Ireland
60 x 30 intervarsities Shane Broidy
bagged the Mens B title with John
Walsh successful in the Mens C
division.
Ciaran Neary, Brian O’Sullivan,
Peter Hughes, John Horgan and Terry McElvaney lost out in the senior
team of four finals in the 60x30 and
40x20 to WIT and UCD respectively.
Elsewhere, the junior team captured
the plate overcoming UL in the final.
More recently, five member of the
club travelled to Springfield, Missouri for the USA collegiate championships. “It was a great experience
and each of the DCU handballers
competed very well,” said Cawley.
Of the five that made the trip
state side, Ciaran Neary and Peter
Hughes were very unlucky in the
doubles semi-final losing out in a
tie break 11-6. Hughes contested the
Mens A final but was unsuccessful
in his push for honours.

Ciaran Neary and Terry McElvaney lost out in the quarter finals of
the open with Neary narrowly losing
out to the number one seed in a tie
break. Gavin Cawley lost out in the
quarters of his division.
Two of the games concerning
DCU handballers were seen by
handball enthusiasts all over the
world as it was streamed live on the
internet by the World Pro-Handball
Association.
In any event, recent disputes over
the handball centre at Croke Park
highlights that the struggles of the
DCU handball club are a microcosm
for what is happening at a national
level.
That said, with players such as
Hughes and Neary continuing to
advance the profile of DCU handball with their on-court exploits and
Michael Kennedy attempting to do
likewise off-court, it mightn’t be too
long before those so dismissive of
the game in DCU are forced to sit up
and take notice.

Plate
semifinalists

The DCU ladies soccer team
reached the semi-final of the
plate competition at the recent
Inter-varsities in Galway, but
were denied a final berth by
Dublin rivals UCD who
advanced on a scoreline of 2-1,
Becky Walsh netting for DCU.

The College View 21.03.12 23

SPORTS

SPORTS@thecollegeview.com

Murray
confident
ahead of
Crowley Cup
tournament
By Brendan White
Deputy Sports Editor
DCU begin their Crowley Cup
soccer tournament with a tough
match against Queens University
Belfast in UCD tomorrow.
Team captain, Cian Murray, is
expecting the team to do well in
the tournament.
“I expect us to do quite well
in the Crowley Cup this week,”
he toldThe College View Sport.
“We’ve managed to keep our core
players together from the league
and we’ve had a lot of freshers
training withus also, and a lot of
them are quite good too.
“If we win our first game on
Thursday against Queens Belfast
we couldgather some momentum andyou never know - we
could well be playing inthe final
come Sunday.”
The team comes into the tournament on the back of a poor
league campaign.
“The league went very poorly,
we came second from bottom in
our group. This was partially due
to us being promoted into a higher division, but it was mainly due
to the fact that the team is going
through atransition period.
“We lost a lot of our best players from our league-winning
team fromlast year to the first
team, but next year we’ll have
this year’sfreshers playing with
us and hopefully we’ll be able to
challenge for the league.”
Speaking on the input of
manager Martin Healy, Murray
said:“He’s doneextremely well
considering the limited amount
of players he has had. Results
didn’t go our way but he kept our
spirits up and remainedpositive.
He also laid the foundations for a
strong team.”
Despite having numerous
League of Ireland players, DCU
has yet to takea hold of the college football ladder in Ireland.
Murray, a soccer club committee
member, believes that funding is
a problem for the club.
“I think it’s because the university is one that is dominated by
itsGAA. DCU has had huge success and they deserve to be held
in such highregard. The football
club is having to fight for its funding from thecollege and what we
do get is very little in comparison
to what theGAA club is given.
We have such good potential in
football and with better funding
I believe that we could be hugely
competitive at the highest level.”

Emma Brennan (centre) who was one DCU’s more impressive performers in their league final defeat | Image by Sportsfile

Second half showing proves costly
By Eoghan Cormican
Sports Editor
The camogie’s side bid to add the
league crown to the recently captured Purcell Cup ended in bitter
disappointment when they were
outgunned by a stronger and more
skilful UL side at Ballykelly on
Wednesday week last.
On reflection, DCU – no matter
which way they look at it – will view
this as opportunity lost. A solid first
half showing ensured DCU held the
initiative at the interval, but failure
to register a single score in the second period enabled UL to run out
1-6 to 0-4 winners.

Probably the most frustrating aspect from a DCU perspective was
their inability to establish a more
substantial lead when in the ascendency. Failing to tighten the noose
around UL’s neck left them vulnerableto an onslaught which is exactly
what materialised at the change of
ends.
Although of little consolation to
DCU’s stickwomen, they can take
heart from their ability to more than
compete with arguably one of the
best side’s in college’s camogie at
the moment. Furthermore, it bodes
well for next season where DCU will
embark on their maiden voyage in
the Ashbourne Cup.
In any event, it was DCU who

made the early running and capitalised by raising the first white flag of
the contest through Catriona Regan.
Though Julia White equalised for
UL, DCU subsequently established
a 0-4 to 0-1 lead in their most productive spell.
Regan added a second before Orlaith Durkan sniped a pair of points.
Though very much the dominant
team, Niall Williams charges struggled in front of goal, spurning a
number of opportunities.
Added to this, the Ashbourne finalists slowly crept back into proceedings with a second point from
Julia White, followed subsequently
by a Devane free.
UL upped the ante in the second

half and a fabulous point from Devane signalled their intent. Within
two minutes Devane was to land
the crucial score, her long range free
somehow managing to nestle itself
in the DCU net.
Credit to DCU who continued to
battle bravely, but insurance scores
from Niamh Richardson and Cait
Devane rubberstamped victory for
UL.
DCU have made huge progress
this year, strides forward have been
taken and they should draw invaluable experience from their season’s
exploits. On the day, they were
best served by Emma Brennan, the
Twomey sisters, Catrionia Regan
and Orlaith Durkan.

Impressive Coghlan eases to Cross Country title
By Ronan Duggan

The DCU men’s team returned to
the summit of inter varsity athletics
when comfortably claiming gold at
the recent cross country championships at Waterford IT.
Once again, DCU’s men’s team
toed the line under significant pressure from WIT and a resurgent UCD
which in fact managed to overcome
DCU at the recent road relays.
DCU, however, delivered a redemptory performance in putting
paid to any doubts surrounding the
team’s overall strength. Led home by
John Coghlan, who recently clocked
sub four minutes for the mile in
Boston, the team packed well with
Emmet Jennings in fourth, Darren

McBrearty in eighth, Jayme Rossiter
in 13th, Darragh Greene in 15th and
bringing the team home as the final
scorer was Mark McDonald in 21st
place.
The team effort proved sufficient
for top spot on the rostrum but only
by seven points ahead of the host
College, with UCD taking bronze.
Not surprisingly, Coghlan was the
stand out DCU performer in securing his first cross country title with
consummate ease. Indeed, encapsulating Coghlan’s dominance on
the day was his fourteen second
winning margin over training partner Daire Bermingham (DIT).
There was to be no such joy for the
women’s team however, whose ten
year reign as cross country queens
came to an agonising end.
Superb runs from Ciara Mageean

(1st) and Ciara Everard (3rd) ensured UCD claimed the spoils with
DCU assuming the unfamiliar role
of bridesmaids in collecting silver.
The ever improving Laura Behan
was the first DCU athlete across the
line in 5th with Ciara Durkin (10th),
Mary Anne O Sullivan (11th) and
Susie McManus (14th) packing well
for the team.
Attention now shifts to the outdoor track and field championships
where DCU will attempt to defend
their Men’s and Women’s titles. In
what has been a turbulent year for
DCU athletics with two losses so
far this year, they will be looking
for strong team performances on
the track. The Dragons have been
wounded, but will be ready to rain
fire and return to their all conquering form in Athlone IT on April 21st.

John Coghlan pictured above
captured his first National inter
varsity cross country title at WIT
recently | Image by Sportsfile

CU ladies will attempt
to secure a fourth successive O’Connor Cup
when they travel to Belfast for the most crucial weekend in
the college’s football calendar.
Their bid to complete the four-ina-row wasn’t helped by the recent
semi-final draw in which DCU were
pitted against arch rivals University
of Ulster Jordanstown.
The pair have dominated college’s
football in recent seasons, contesting the last two O’Connor Cup finals
with DCU emerging victorious on

both occasions. Survivors from last
year’s 3-8 to 1-11 triumph include
Lindsay Peat and Monaghan’s Ellen McCarron and both will be expected to lead the charge again this
Saturday.
Manager Peter Clarke was optimistic and full of praise for his
charges: “We have a great chance.
The preparation has been brilliant.”
Clarke highlighted the difficulties involved with collegiate sports
in general, pointing out the constant need to overhaul and rebuild
the squad. “There was a mass exodus at the end of last year. It left us
with only six players with O’Connor
Cup experience, but the commitment from the freshers has been re-

ally good. All the players are looking
sharp and focused,” he told The College View Sport. Fighting their way
past Jordanstown won’t be easy for
the college though, with the Northerners heading into the penultimate
round in great form.
DCU have been no slouches
themselves, however, with impressive displays this season including
a 5-13 to 1-12 win against UCC and
4-12 to 2-11 victory over IT Sligo.
Demonstrating grit and determination on multiple occasions to fight
back from losing positions has been
a great indicator of the strong mentality in Clarke’s side.
Even reaching the semi-final
proved difficult, with the ladies be-

ing well beaten by Queens in the
lead-up. Only a trouncing of UCD
and a narrow three point victory in a
rematch against Queens allowed the
DCU girls to sneak in the back door.
Clarke was also quick to express
his pride in the Ladies second team,
who were unlucky to lose out in the
division plate final.
The All-Ireland semi-finals will
take place at Queens College, Belfast on Saturday the 24th of March.
The winners of the DCU-UUJ tie
will go on to the face the winners of
the all-Munster clash of University
of Limerick and University College
Cork. The final will take then take
place on the following day, Sunday
March 25th.

DCU Saints will contest this Friday’s Nivea Men’s Superleague
final (8:45pm) following a hugely impressive win over UCD
Marian.
Last weekend marked the penultimate series of games in both
the Men’s and Women’s Superleague and while DCU Mercy
may have failed in their bid to
reach the decider, the Saints experienced no such difficulty in
securing a final berth where they
will meet UL.
The Eagles were always comfortable in overcoming UCC Demons and no doubt will prove
formidable opposition for David
Donnelly’s side.
DCU Saints justified their favourites tag in the opening exchanges of Sunday’s semi-final,
leading 29-18 by the end of the
first quarter, extending their advantage to 45-31 by the interval.
The third quarter would be
crucial if UCD Marian were going
to peg back the deficit, but failure
to do so ensured the final quarter
was nothing more than a procession as DCU ran out comfortable
82-55 winners.
There was to be no such joy
for the Saints’ female counterparts who were defeated by Team
Montenotte Cork in Sunday’s
Women’s Superleague semi.
Hopes were high that DCU
Mercy could set up a repeat of the
cup final with UL, but the Cork
ladies were full value for their 7968 win.
DCU held a slender one point
advantage at the end of the first
quarter, but led by Claire Rockall, Montenotte turned it around
thereafter and were 38-30 to the
good at half time.
Try as they might DCU Mercy
were unable to reduce the deficit
and their efforts were frustrated
in the fourth quarter as Helena
Kenny, Lisa Palmer and Suzanne
Maguire were all fouled out.